


Partly Dragon

by Marijane_Akuma



Series: Partly Dragon AU [1]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bonds, Childhood Memories, Commanding, Denial, Discovery, Dragon Hiccup, Dragon Riders, Feelings, Firsts, Gen, I really dunno what to write here, Kidnapping, Madness, Pain, Repressed Memories, Tags Are Hard, Transformation, Violence, at first, hatchling-leader, love but not romatically, only at first, partly dragon, sort of slavery, violence later in the story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-24 18:59:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 25,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3780784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marijane_Akuma/pseuds/Marijane_Akuma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Hiccup is so good at handling dragons - because he´s partly a dragon himself?<br/>He discovers it (and isn´t really thrilled about it), then trouble occurs, caused by some maniac we all know who wants his own army of dragons and guess who he needs to accomplish his goal? Right, Hiccup, who really has other problems at the moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nightmares, memories and denial

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, if painful changes or nightmares trigger something, you maybe shouldn´t read this. Other than that, I hope ya enjoy it. Also, if you want to report errors (grammar) please tell me, English isn´t my native language.

In a cold night, there were four human wide-awake in a little hut, while everyone else slept peacefully in their beds. 

„What is she saying Gobber?“ asked Stoic the Vast, chief of the Hairy Hooligans, his old friend with the hook as a hand and the wooden leg. Gobber leaned further forward. Gothi, the old shaman woman of their village never spoke, she only drew pictures into the sand with her staff, which only very few could read and Gobber was one of them. A bit beside them sat a young woman, her stomach was round and very big - a child would arrive soon. The child of a chief.

“The kid is born… under a yak with three legs?” Gothi hit him at the head with her staff and drew some more. “Oh, no, it´s born under a strange star.”

Stoic huffed - that didn´t actually help him. But Gothi hasn´t finished yet. “She says it will have… a touch of destiny within it.”

The woman smiled and stroked her stomach, where she felt a little movement from within. “That´s good, isn´t it?” Stoic asked, a bit of concern laid in his look he shot his wife. Gothi shrugged, before she drew some more signs. “The stars are very discreet and won´t tell her more. But it shouldn´t be that bad, it´s just strange.” Gobber translated and that was all Gothi had to say.

 

 

These words stayed long in the thoughts of the chief, after his son was born, after his wife disappeared and while he had to rise his son by himself.  
He and everyone else saw it - his son was a Hiccup and that wouldn´t change. He was… different. For Stoic it wasn´t a good different, seeing how his son wasn´t anything like a Viking would be.

 

Now you would ask:

But what about Hiccup? What about the strange star? Did he lie? Did Gothi read them wrong?

No.

 And Hiccup knew he was different, but he didn´t want to believe it.

 

_It was dark and cold, but not long, because another dragon raid came. He wasn´t older than five when a Monstrous Nightmare crashed into their house right next to him. He stared at the beast in terrified awe, and after some time it stared back. He knew it was his end; he knew he would die now, the beast would spit fire and burn him to ash – but it didn´t. It only stared and sniffed while slowly crouching closer, until he screamed at the top of his lungs, finally getting his voice back. The beast flew off startled as it was. Hiccup continued to scream, too caught up in his fear and terror. Then it happened. His fingernails grew to sharp claws and his teeth hurt. His eyes burned and his back ached terribly. The pain was too much for him and he stopped screaming soon after it begun. But it didn´t stop. He fell to his knees and immediately after stood on all four, feeling a burning heat in his chest, as if there would be a fire inside of him. Then he saw his hands, the razor sharp nails that looked rather like claws - like dragon claws. He felt a strange tingling under the skin of his limbs, his face, back and chest, getting further and further to the outside, then little scales begun to dig through his skin like tiny knives. It hurt, it hurt so much, he couldn´t handle it any longer and tried to scream. But there only came a whimper, scratchy and weak. Like from a dragon hatchling. He tried and tried again, but stopped when it worked. Because that wasn´t his voice, it wasn´t even human. He… he had roared. Like a real dragon. The shock silenced him and when the pain suddenly doubled he passed out._

With a little scream he shot up and found himself in his bed. Panting, startled and sweating.

“Not this again, why does it keep coming up?” he whispered to himself while rubbing his forehead. 

“Hiccup? I heard you scream, is everything okay?” his father called from below. Did he scream _that_ loud?

“Yes dad, everything is fine, just – just a nightmare.”

Further down stood the chief, the slightly concerned look flew from his face. It seemed tired and old now. “Is 15 and screams because of a nightmare like a little girl in front of a dragon…” he mumbled into his red beard. When he was four, Hiccup had made the braids that were still in it. He had been so lively back then, always showing his father his makings and pictures, but after the one dragon raid, where a Nightmare had crashed into their house and he had awoken the day after with strange cuts, he had changed so suddenly it was shocking. Before, he laughed so often and jumped around and wanted to learn more and more, demanded to hear stories from the elder Vikings and searched for – for trolls instead of fishing! He would go into the woods for hours and come back dirty, sweaty but with a wide grin and some flower he found to be pretty enough to show his father. Then he was suddenly still and calm. He obeyed and listened, he never caused trouble like some had feared he would. But he would leap out of the forge and argue playfully with their smith Gobber. He would go to the woods or strode randomly around the island, always returning without even a scratch, making Stoic assume that he was really just walking without taking any risks. He would write into his notebook or draw into it, but refuse to show. At another raid when he had snuck out he was nearly killed. He had rescued his little lad from another Monstrous Nightmare and shut him into their house. After that night (he has heard some screams from him) he has changed again. He never spoke up if he wasn´t asked, he didn´t even lift his head without needing to, he never left the forge or the house (except for switching between them) on his own and never got out discovering when he could.

“Son, come down here.” Stoic ordered and soon enough heard the little footsteps his scrawny son made. With a waiting expression he came down, but it soon saddened when he saw what his father carried with him. “We will go for one more search for the nest before the ice sets in. I want you to enter the dragon training with the other teens.” Hiccup seemed troubled by that, seeing as how he fiddled with his sleeves. “Can´t – can´t I just stay in the forge instead? I don´t think I´d be fit fighting dragons…”, “But it´s time son.”, “Okay, rephrase: I _can´t_ kill dragons.” The mere thought made his chest tighten and his heart beat like he would be asked to kill one of the villagers. But he didn´t say that, it would only make him stranger. “But you WILL.”, “Dad I-“, “Son. It´s time.” He handed him an axe he could barely hold, let alone swing. “If you carry this with you, you carry all of us with you. You talk like us, you walk like us, you think like us.” Hiccup remained silent. Stoic had appreciated that he had spoken up to him for this moment, his usual self showed up, but it seemed like it only lasted short. “You understood?” Hiccup looked down. “Yes…dad.”, “Good.” He headed for the door and stopped when he was already half out of it. “Train hard, I will be back… probably.”, “And I will be here… maybe…” Stoic huffed a last time before he went.  
Hiccup leaned the axe against the wall and tried to calm himself down while he seated himself on the staircase and slung his arms around his upper body, which caged his fluttering heart inside of it. “It´s okay, you can control your fear and your feelings, it won´t happen again. It happened twice, it hurt both times, yes, but it won´t happen again. It won´t happen again, you can do this.” He told himself and calmed down pretty fast. Later he would tell himself it never ever happened to begin with, because it were just dreams and thus couldn´t happen again at all. Too bad he wasn´t a good liar.


	2. A strange encounter, some realizations and another strange encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup´s first day at the dragon accademy, the dragon raid we all know and some literally breathtaking encounter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, yes, this is really short and you all know the plot so far, because the actual story doesn´t begin yet, but this is important for later sooooo....

He lost his coolness the next day. The Gronckle was mad at the people for imprisoning her and when she saw the weakest of them all she went for him, seeing him as an easy target. What they all didn´t expect, though, was that the Gronckle stopped itself just a split second away from burning Hiccup to ash and instead shot the wall, but only she herself and Hiccup noticed that it was on purpose, the others just thought it was pure luck. It sniffed curiously, but was literally hooked away by Gobber and back in its cage seconds later.

Later at home, Hiccup thought all day about his first lesson but couldn´t figure out why the Gronckle had chosen to not shoot him. The dream from the night before came into his mind. The Monstrous Nightmare all those years ago as well only sniffed at him, it didn´t even intend to shoot him. Strange, he thought. And since a long time, he decided to go out and strode through the woods. At first, it was only tiring and difficult, but then his body remembered how he had to walk down a hill with loose soil, how to duck under branches and how to avoid tripping all the time – it became fun. Though he still didn´t find an answer, he got home refreshed, as if he had been a dried flower all these years and that got some water. He decided that he would pick up this habit again.

At this night, there again was a dragon raid and of course he stayed in the forge.

At first.

He had finished his bola thrower recentlyand it tingled in his fingers to try it out. It wasn´t like Gobber had told him to stay in the forge, he had just left while mumbling something about the others needing him. And Hiccup would just sit around in there, might as well try his luck. Others saw him and shouted to get back into the forge or the house, but he didn´t listen, excitement curled up in his chest like it did the last time years ago. He got onto a hill slightly apart from the village, got his thrower ready and stared at the dark sky. It was a bit like the last time, when the Monstrous Nightmare tried to kill him the last time he went out during a dragon raid, but he didn´t let himself think about that now. It took some time, but he actually shot a dragon! He did it! He saw it crashing down, but again a Monstrous Nightmare wanted to burn him. Or so he thought. It crashed his bola thrower under one of his feet and crouched nearer and nearer, Hiccup stumbled back and soon felt a wall standing behind him. Trapping him. The mighty beast sniffed and crouched near enough for Hiccup to feel the hotness of the beast prickle against his own skin, when Gobber came and rescued him by tackling the devil away. He run back into the forge as fast as he could (which was actually pretty fast, since he may be little but was very speedy for his size) and hid in there until the raid was over. Gobber shouted at him for leaving the forge and endanger himself, but Hiccup didn´t really listen to him. He mapped the area the dragon had fallen down in his head and planned his routs to get to said area. 

The next days, when dragon-training was called off, in favor of repairing the damaged village, he snuck out again and searched the area the dragon should have fallen down in. It took several days and much more nerves, but eventually he found (by pure luck) an obviously crashed tree and the area around it was damaged as well. He followed the fallen down tree with the eyes and discovered a big trench, leading over a small edge and disappearing. Of course he followed it but jerked back the moment he saw the dragon. He took some deep breaths and looked over the edge again, telling himself in his head it was okay and to remain calm at all cost. His eyes went wide when he realized what dragon he had shot as he surveyed the black mass. The Nightfury, the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. The most feared dragon they knew _and he had **shot hiM DOWN**_. He, Hiccup, the village runt. It took him mere seconds to get up and run to the downed dragon. But he jerked back again when it suddenly moved and soon after it breathed deeply. From his first lesson he knew a downed dragon was a dead dragon, so it wouldn´t take much to kill it, seeing as it was completely unable to flee from his bola. It wouldn´t lay here anymore if it could flee, so he took out his knife and stepped closer. But when he met eyes with it, he found himself he couldn´t kill it in an instant. Shakily he stepped back, feeling heavy guilt and something else he didn´t recognize flow through him. “I did this… ” he mumbled to himself before making a decision that was crazy enough to kill him.   
He felt his heartbeat speed up as he cut the ropes that tied up the dragon. It blew himself free by its o wn soonand tackled Hiccup. The paw pressed down on his chest and the claws were on each side of his neck; the rocks behind him blocked every possible way of escape and the dragon stared him right in the eyes. It were green eyes with sprinkles of yellow, making it look like they held spring itself in them – but they were also deep and very intelligent. They just stared at each other for some moments, the beast obviously sniffed the strange smell on the human in front of him and it was the smell of a dragon, but also a human, he couldn´t say if it was friendly or not which confused him. He didn´t like to be confused and soon got frustrated enough by it, that he just roared out his frustration and tried to fly away, which didn´t work at all.

Hiccup searched the dragon out and soon found him being trapped in the cove with a pond in it, some rocks and trees. Something in him stirred at the sight, it was the same foreign feeling from before, but he left the cove before he would do something stupid. 


	3. Second encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, last part of the "before-story", then, finally, the REAL story´ll start yay^^

He would go every day through the woods and  end up at the cove at some pointand watch the dragon, study his behavior. He made a note to bring fish with him the next day. But back at the village Gobber told him that there was training the next day, so he would have to go to the cove by evening. No one should see him, because someone could follow him and would kill the dragon on sight. Normally he had  just left really early in the morning while everyone slept and returned in the dark. The others thought he would spent his days in the house how they were used to it, so no one noticed his absence. But when he had to go to training, they would notice him leave sooner or later, so he had to wait for the cover of the night. And he did.

The lesson wasn´t that exciting, just axe-throwing and he actually threw it wide enough to be counted as a throw. Well, it didn´t flew more than one and a half meter, but it flew.

 

He held the fish tight in his hands as he entered the cove for the first time. He looked around while he slowly marched forward, but couldn´t find the dragon until it came from behind him. Startled he spun around and nearly tripped, but in the end just held out the fish with a trembling arm and jelly-knees. The dragon sniffed and crouched closer, but soon growled and looked at his little dagger that reflected the light of the full moon above them. He threw the dagger to the ground and even kicked it away as the dragon continued to growl at it. After that he was instantly relaxed and looked at him with curious wide eyes, the pupils were widened to what seemed as far as possible for them. He slowly came close and held his mouth open and Hiccup wondered about the lack of teeth, until they came out and the fish was snatched away. He was amazed and really wanted to know how that worked a split second later, getting closer to the big being. At first it flinched and jerked back slightly, but when he smiled calmly and looked away, with his hand still out stretched, it accepted his greeting. Slowly and at some point hesitating it pressed its snout into his palm. He didn´t really know why he looked away, it was just a feeling. The same strange feeling. The feeling was pleased and made him feel at ease now that he felt the dry but smooth and very warm scales against his skin. The feeling was exploding inside him and it was a bit like… coming home after a long journey.

After that, everything went just fine.

And you know the plot, how Hiccup wants to show the entire village what lovely creatures the dragons were, how it failed, Stoic sails to the dragon island, how they defeat the red(/green?) death and Hiccup looses his foot.

After that, the villagers and dragons lived together. It was peacefully.

But they saw it – Hiccup really _was_ strange.


	4. Burning eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup isn´t the only one acting strange this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here it comes guys, here it comes - we prepare everything for the big moment.

But they saw it – Hiccup really _was_ strange.

 

His behavior had changed again, back to his natural self: smiling, big and curious but also very intelligent eyes, a little jump in his walk, even with the metal leg. That wasn´t unusual, it was actually pretty normal, but at the same time, they found him strange. It didn´t take long for them to figure out why.  
When he walked through the village, every dragon would turn its head at him at least for a second, the most would come near and long for a scratch, a pat – just some kind of touch. The dragons did this hardly when their owners walked by. He ate together with them as well. Other villagers did try, but the dragons wouldn´t let them. He sat there, surrounded by dragons of all kinds and seemed to be like he was at home, not uncomfortable at all – like everyone else would be. Sure, the dragons were tamed now, but they wouldstill be frightened to be surrounded by so many of them with food in their hands. And he had mastered the disgusting but oh-so _difficult_ technique of swallowing whatever the dragons shared with him without puking. Though, the others weren´t exactly sure if they _wanted_ to know how he did this. It was still disgusting. Impressive - but disgusting.

But there were these other, little things. Whenever a dragon had trouble with its master, it would just flow to Hiccup or bring its master to him, because they just wouldn´t understand. He would scratch and caress the dragon while he listened to the troubled villager, then think while stare into the much bigger eyes and offer a solution, even ask the dragon which would definitely give his approval.  
Sometimes Terrible Terror would jump out of nowhere onto his shoulders (he didn´t even flinch once) and long for a scratch and lick his cheek. When he felt down and it was visible (even when it wasn´t) he could bet on it that in the next minutes a dragon wouldcome up, nudge and then distract him from whatever (making him say stuff like >Hey, what´s up? < >Someone wants to be scratched I guess? < >Who´s a nice dragon in cuddling mood? < and other things) and it would definitely work.

 

“Don´t you think it´s strange?” asked Snotlout the other teens around him. They looked up from their food and followed his gaze to Hiccup, who, again, ate with the dragons instead of the other teens… or humans, that is. A Terrible Terror crawled into his lap and wanted to be stroked. It hissed at him and squeezed itself under his hand until he understood and stroked it chuckling. “What? He does that everyday, doesn´t he?” asked Fishlegs back, finding nothing strange in the scene. “Yeah, I know what you mean.” answered Tuffnut. “He sits with them as if they were... humans.” Ruffnut continued. “Or is he a dragon that makes us just think he is a human?” Tuffnut asked at the end. Astrid hit him. “It´s not wondrous for him to be at best terms with them, he knows them the longest.” “But he also just has his way with them, dontcha think?” their heads turned simultaneously to Gobber, who had just showed up and sat down next to Fishlegs. “Well…” Astrid saw back to the ring of dragons. “They´re kind of looking strangely at him but… doesn´t seem something to be worried about…” she spoke out her thoughts. “He has a touch of destiny within him.” Gobber admitted shrugging like it wasn´t important at all, but instantly had the attention of all the teens around him. “What do you mean?” Fishlegs asked what they all thought. Gobber frowned. “Before he was born, Gothi said he would be born under a strange star and have a touch of destiny – I guess she was right, getting to know the dragons first in the midst of a war and freeing them from that big monster and all.” He shrugged again and began to eat himself. He found it rather enjoying to eat with the kids every now and then. “So he´s not only becoming chief some day, but italso was his _destiny_ to become a hero?” asked Snotlout slightly angered and made a face. “Sorta.” Gobber answered muffled with his mouth stuffed with food. “That would explain why the all the dragons listen to him.” added Fishlegs. Snotlout huffed and shot up, before he headed straight for the circle of dragons and Hiccup. His lunch was long forgotten. “Pff – I will show them, that  _my_ dragon obeys _me_ and not _him_.” He grumbled and came to a stop behind Hookfang, who didn´t even bother to look away from Hiccup at all. No, she continued to gaze at him with her head on the ground and a slow heartbeat as if she would be seconds away from sleeping. “Hookfang!” Snotlout shouted and instantly had the attention of the whole circle. The Monstrous Nightmare under them lifted her head slowly and shifted enough so that she could bow her head right into front of her human. “Let´s go for a ride, laying around with a talking fishbone all day must be boring.” Hiccup glared at him and so did Toothless. And soon after the other dragons as well, even Hookfang. “W-what?”

“I´m not a talking fishbone Snotlout.” Hiccup… growled? Was it possible for humans to growl like that? Didn´t it sound awfully a lot like when a dragon growled? “What? Have you learned to speak like dragons or what? Can´t find human company so you try with dragons eh?” Snotlout mocked. Though his tone was mean, he felt slightly unsure on the inside. He heard another growl deep and low, coming from Hookfang before she shifted back into her previous position and ignored her rider. “Seems like your dragon doesn´t want to fly now.” Hiccup said with a low voice with a bit pleasure mixing into his tone and the others saw that Snotlout went stiff while he looked at Hiccup. The other teens couldn´t see him, because the big amount of wings shielded him now from their sight because the dragons have gotten up and all. Else they may have seen the little change in his eyes, the pupils. The next thing they knew was that Snotlout returned with an expression as if he would´ve seen a ghost and refused to talk and Hiccup rubbed his eyes as if there was dust in them. After a while, Snotlout only said he would understand now why the beasts favored Hiccup, but wouldn´t say anything further about it.

Hiccup felt a burning in his eyes while he got angry. He couldn´t stand it when someone mocked him, it hurt even more because no one had done that for a rather long time now. But now he was angry and felt a strange need to hiss at his cousin but… it was the same strange feeling that always made him feel at ease around or amidst dragons and he somehow thought it wasn´t something for the public to show, so he let it be. The other dragons hissed at Snotlout for his commentary already anyways. When Hookfang laid back down, he felt kind of pleased, like he had just won against Snotlout and let a bit hissing flow into his answer, only a bit. But as he did so, his eyes burned all the more, so that he couldn´t stand it any longer and squeezed them shut, while rubbing them. It continued to burn and he felt a worried nudge from Toothless, so he laughed slightly to play it down. “Nothing bud, my eyes just kinda burn…” he assured him and tried to look at him, but still squeezed his eyes for them still burning. The Terrible Terror on his lap got up, leaned with his front legs against his chest and licked over the hurting parts. At first he wanted to stop him, but it felt good and eased the pain, so he let him do until it actually stopped to burn. “Thanks little guy, that really helped.” He scratched him between the horns and the little being became pudding under his hands, as he knew it would. He didn´t even bother to wipe the saliva away, it didn´t bother him anyway.

“Hey Hiccup, wanna go for a ride?” Astrid asked as she saw Hiccup getting on Toothless, she wanted to do the same anyways. It would be fun to fly together. She also wanted to know if he knew what was with Snotlout´s strange behavior earlier, he had caused it after all. He hesitated and looked to Toothless, who stared back intensely. “Sorry Astrid uh Toothless wants to show me something, I guess it´s sorta private?” she crossed her arms and grinned, but also cocked one brow. “What – did he tell you that?” Hiccup hesitated again and avoided to look her in the eye. “Well…” he trailed off after that one word. She sighed and got a step closer. “Hiccup… is everything okay? The other find you a bit… strange since the thing with the red death. If something troubles you, you know you can tell us.” “Wha- me? _Strange_? Pff – not a bit I´m perfectly normal, it´s just unusual for you to see me out of the house  all day, nothing else, right bud? You wanted to show me something, right? Bye Astrid.” He jabbered very quickly before he hurriedly took off. Astrid found that more than just _strange_ and decided to follow him. 

It didn´t take long for him to land, even though they were on the other side of the island. It was even more unusual that he didn´t notice her at all. Usually he would catch sight of her after a few seconds and get away too fast to follow, but now she could easily track him down. Something really seemed to trouble him, their landing seemed rather sudden as well, as if it wasn´t planned at all. Didn´t he rub his eyes just now? Astrid was shocked – he wasn´t crying, was he? Because of what she said? No, that was nonsense. But why else?

They landed in their cove and she landed nearby- Astrid wanted to watch them but was stopped. Stormfly wouldn´t let her go near the cove and evenshoved her away from it. She tried to resist and get around her dragon several times, but had to give up when Stormfly started to fly, grabbed her and flew with her to her home. She scolded her dragon, but it wouldn´t let her go out of the house anymore, so she stayed in it and pouted about her disobedient dragon. 


	5. Some exhausting changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, finally, IT happens. Be prepared. No seriously, be prepared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If pain (or exploding people, or death wishes) triggers something, you shouldn´t read this. Not that anything happens, though.

It hurt.

 _Hurt_ damnit.

It hurt more and more, much more than the last time and tears started to blur his vision. He ordered Toothless to land, it was too dangerous to fly when he didn’t see a thing – he maneuvered them after all. Toothless gave a concerned sound but obeyed nonetheless and Hiccup found them to be in their cove. It was like a (second) home so he didn´t need to see much to recognize it. Quickly he got down and sat down as soon as he felt solid ground beneath his foot. The burning got stronger and he felt more tears forming in his eyes to ease the pain so that they run down his cheeks already, but it didn´t work at all. Toothless nudged him with a worried purring-sound, but Hiccup only tried to laugh it away. So he leaned back with closed eyes and rested his head on Toothless´ side. “It´s okay, it will go away soon - I could bet.” He chuckled but was also slightly worried. His eyes still burned and the tears still flowed but he smiled to lessen Toothless´ worry. He was sure it was nothing important, until he remembered the pain. No, he _recognized_ it. His stomach dropped. It was the same burning he had felt twice before. When he was in panic and dragons were near. The strange feeling in him bubbled and boiled more than usually when he was near dragons and it worried him. The feeling appeared the first time after that horrible encounter with the Monstrous Nightmare that had crashed into their house. He had never been that frightened or that near to a dragon before. Let alone at the same time.

The feeling and the strange thing that happened with him, the pain, _it has to do with each other_.

An inner war made of chaos of feelings broke free after that conclusion hit his mind like an arrow and he shot up with wide eyes, while he slung his arms around his upper body and pulled his legs in as far as possible. Panic flooded him and he felt as if falling appart. The strange tickling appeared beneath his skin - got further and further to the surface. He held in the screams that wanted to escape his throat and tried not to shiver as much as he did. He heard a worried and frightened Toothless, but couldn´t do or say anything in fear of beginning to scream as soon as he opened his mouth. Unimaginable pain shot up and down his limbs, his back and his eyes all the more. His fear grew with every second the pain increased, until he felt it. Like tiny but extremely sharp knives they were digging through his skin from the inside. Scales. There grew _scales_ on his hands, his arms, he felt them in his face and back, even his legs, but not everywhere. The pain eased and he felt his heartbeat slow down when the scales stopped growing, before it picked up more  speedthan before. All the pain shot up to his back, made him grunt and grit his teeth to hold back screams that would show his pain. He fell forward to his hands and knees, squirmed under the pain and breathed heavily through his nose. His back felt like it would harden and something pressed from the inside at the same time. Like someone would press more and more into him, but he couldn´t let it out. It was pressing painfully against his shoulder blades and he felt like it would rip him apart or let him explode – he didn´t care, let him explode, _but stop the pain!_ He couldn´t hold his screams in any longer and some strange sounds escaped his throat, his teeth hurt and it sounded like a whining. Mixed with weak roaring, but most of all whining and weak whistling. He heard a ripping sound and felt his shirt loosen, but the pain eased instantly and quickly, so he let himself fall to the earth with a moan and heavy breathing, but it was over, the pain went away, sweet Thor it was finally _over_.

He fought himself up on his hands and knees again when he catched his breath, but didn´t come any further. It was too hard, he was suddenly extremely weak. When he saw his hands and arms (because his ripped shirt slumped down and thus was shoved away) he froze. Memories flooded his mind, while he stared at his limbs. His nails, again, were long and pointy and black and looked like claws and _oh gods why was this happening_. On the backs of his hands and up his arms were scales. Really dark ones, but with green shimmering as the sunlight hit them. He stared at them in horror and wanted to sit up further, but failed and would´ve fallen to the side if Toothless wouldn´t have caught him with his big head. “Thanks bud…” he rasped out and soon after bit his bottom lip. His voice… well, wasn´t _his_ voice. It was extremely deep and rough, he felt a growl in his throat and chest that nearly vibrated and he has hissed just now, hasn´t he? Something other distracted him from his for him sinisterly strange voice – his back. His shoulders and his lower back as well felt awfully heavy. And it felt like… there would cling something… at him? He saw a last time into Toothless´ now calm eyes before he slowly looked to his back and gave a shriek of surprise and shock. On the ground layd four wings, weak, sluggish and all in all limp. He swallowed hard to restrain a scream of pure horror and looked back to Toothless. It took some courage to speak again, but he had to confirm it. “Do you see that too…?” he asked lowly, he wanted to whisper, but again it was more hissing than anything else. Toothless looked at the wings, back to him and nodded. With a deep sigh (whine) he let his head slump against Toothless and huffed (puffed) once. What was with these dragon sounds taking over his voice anyway?

They remained like that a while and every now and then Hiccup would feel a twitch in his wings, which still lay spread out on the ground and it was an extremely awkward feeling. When he got enough feeling back in his arms and legs, he let go of Toothless and crawled over to the pond to look at his face. His wings trailed on the ground and he felt how his claws dug deep into the soft earth. The pond was like a mirror.

It was shocking, to say the least.

These scales in his face seemed to come from behind and ended over his cheekbones, also on his forehead. His teeth were sharp and pointy, beginning on the canine teeth and… his eyes. That explained the burning – the pupils were formed like slits and twitched a bit as if they still had to adjust when he moved his eyes and the green stretched way further than it should. They finished while he still stared at his image and suddenly everything became very sharp and... extremely _detailed_. His eyesight had improved drastically; he could even see some dirt – things flow in the water. When he looked up to Toothless it was as if he had never seen this face before, even though he remembered clearly how he had stared at it all these hours. He could see every scale, together with a light reflection and a shadow, be it as little as it wanted to, every scratch and every scar, every spek of dusk. He could see the muscles move in his eyes as his pupils widened. “This eyesight is awesome but… how am I gonna explain all… _this_?” he gestured helplessly to himself after he sat up, while Toothless just shrugged. Hiccup sat down more comfortably (as comfortably as it was possible with those big wings in the way) and tried to remember the last two times. “Okay, it happened... twice and today, but it never went so far… by the time I awoke, it was always already gone, so it should disappear later by itself…” Toothless nudged him like he always did, as if he wouldn´t even care about the drastic change of his human. “… you don´t seem to have a problem with that at all, do you?” Toothless made a sound and somehow… Hiccup understood exactly what he said. Or well, not what he said, it was still just some sound he was used to hear, but he knew what it _meant_ without needing to guess. “So you think I look good?” he asked perplexed and Toothless nodded. Okay, that was strange. “So, I understand my dragon now – and there goes my saneness.” He growled. He could only hope it didn´t hurt so much to change back as it did to change.

What was he anyway? A half dragon-human or half human-dragon? And he didn´t have a tail, so he wouldn´t be able to fly properly would he? Was he even able to fly anyway? He shot a doubtful look to the still limp wings and sighed, which came out as a mix of whining and grumbling. He groaned (roared in a frustrated way, really) because he was already annoyed by his not properly working voice.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------

“So, let´s try this out.” He said with halfhearted but newfound enthusiasm. He was able to stand now without tripping over or being weighed down by his ridiculously large wings – they were bigger than Toothless´- why did it have to be four anyways? A normal dragon only needed two… but, he wasn´t a normal dragon, maybe a what-ever-he-was needed four to fly. He widened his stance and tried to move these big things… but it didn´t really work. They just twitched, lifted slightly for a second and slumped down again. Toothless came from behind and flipped one up with his snout, only to let it fall on his head and grin at Hiccup with a tongue that hung out of his mouth, while the limp wing laid over him like a cover. “Well, at least one of us has his fun…” he grumbled and crossed his arms. After he took a deep breath and tried again, it actually worked. It was really heavy, but at the same time light… as if he had struggle lifting something up despite it´s lightness which felt really awkward. It took several further tries, but then he was able to fold them so that they wouldn´t lay limp on the ground and he could bent them how he wanted, though, if he wanted to bend only one of them, the other of the pair did the same – that would need some practice. Toothless grumbled something what meant for Hiccup to try to fly. “You sure? What if it works?” he got a deadpan stare as a comeback. “Okay, okay.” He tried and flapped his wings. Slowly at first, then faster and he felt himself lift a bit. “Okay, okay, here I go, seems like it works!” he exclaimed and the strange feeling –he had named it his “inner dragon”- filled him with joy and happiness, mixed with some familiarity. As if he had never done something else and just forgot. But beside the joyous feeling, it was also very tiring and he soon fell the meter he could float above the earth down.

Toothless was happy with the progress his human had made in this short time. When he was in pain so much, it was as if it would hurt only to watch him. When he was down on earth again, he wanted to tell him that this was good and hatchlings needed much more time to fly at first try than his human had needed, but before he could do anything, the big grin on the freckled and now scaled face fell, he heart a slowing heartbeat and his human fainted from the exhaustion. He would have fallen to the ground, if Toothless wouldn´t have caught him. He laid him gently to the ground and nudged his face, but he didn´t respond. So he waited. 


	6. A dragons feelings and a confused dad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, the title says it, really. Maybe I should make these longer. But then I wouldn´t find chapter titles-damnit. The number of chapters will scare people away, I know it already.

It was getting darker and the black dragon that was currently curled around his human looked up at the sky with worrie filling a part of his mind, but his master still slept, so he waited. At some point though, something shocking happened – the scales disappeared as if they would retreat under the skin and only left some tiny cuts. Additionally the wings strangely shrinked before they disappeared in Hiccups back, but they left dark marks. All the other things seemed to be back to normal as well and Toothless didn´t know if he liked this or not. On one hand, he was how he always was, which was always good, because it meant he was fine; on the other hand, though, his dragon form was sort of more comforting? He smelled more like a dragon then, the human-smell nearly disappeared and he had this power flow and swizzle out of him, which was very comforting – like the warm beams of sunlight, just that they hit his insides. Toothless checked on his human again and found that he had his usual smell back – he smelled like a human, with a hint of forest, but much more dragon scent than on the other humans. He could smell all the different kinds of them, males and females, grown ups and hatchlings, but mostly himself, which pleased him. He was _his_ human, with _his_ scent mark on him, others would instantly know this one was taken care of, under protection of many and bounded for life already – with him, of course. Toothless found that some touch of the strong unique dragon smell from earlier still lingered on him and didn´t seem to weaken – he was so happy he waggled with his tail, because it was like as a parent seeing how a hatchling was beginning to stand on its own legs the first time. He was excited enough to nudge him again, lick his face and do the other things he did in the morning to wake him up. It worked and he licked his face even more, leaving his scent additionally. “Ahhh bud…?” he scanned himself and stretched. “Seems like I´m back to normal – and wow, without pain like I´m in hel. Wanna head back to get some proper sleep? Or how about a ride in the first full moon of this year? You must´ve been waiting here a long time if the sun already disappears.” He said while looking at the rising moon and the last beams of sun coloring the sky in a deep red and purple. Toothless yawned widely and that was respond enough. Chuckling, Hiccup got on him and it didn´t take long for them to get home. Of course Stoic heard him and he was curious – the other teens had said they saw him flying off in the afternoon and he came back now? Also did the dragons act strange – all at the same time, which was confirmed for them all being together at the academy at that time. It wasn´t long after Hiccup had disappeared, they said. “Son?” he heard some whispering – was his son _cursing_? He was pretty sure he had never heard his son cursing. “Yeah, dad?” his head popped out and… nothing more? Usually he would come down. “Where were you all day? The other teens said you flew off in a hurry.”, “Uh… Toothless wanted to show me something, but we crash landed in the cove and spend the day there instead. Some fly hit me in the eye, causing me to loose my eyesight and the crush was inevitable. I had to do some repairs. I guess we just lost track of time.” He babbled. Hiccup babbled only when he was nervous. And when he was lying. Hiccup really wasn´t a good liar. “Hiccup – what was really going on?” Hiccup sighed and his head disappeared before he came down entirely seconds later. The first thing stoic saw was his ripped shirt that only hung on one shoulder. “Okay, so, I got itchy eyes, landed and crashed into a tree, after that I fell unconscious and Toothless can´t get out of the cove alone, so he had to wait. Not really the manliest story, I know, I know.” He deadpanned and sighed before crossing his arms. Stoic put both of his bulky hands on Hiccups scrawny shoulders. “The important thing is that you are home and you´re fine.” He added a little more firm to his grip and Hiccup winced. “You _are_ fine, aren´t you?”, “Yeah, but a crash isn´t the most comforting thing.” Actually his shoulders seemed to send daggers to the sections where his wings had been – meaning nearly all over his back. Like a nasty graze with dirt in it. “Okay…” he seemed to buy it and straightened, “…I guess some rest will fix that.” Hiccup nodded and was about to turn, but his father spoke up again. “Oh, and there was something strange going on with the dragons today? The teens said they acted weird all together at the same time not long after you flew off. Can you think of something that may have caused this? I don´t want to have raging dragons fly around in the village if that happens again because of an unknown course … at least not without a warning.”, “Nope, no idea. I would have to see it, I guess.” Stoic scanned him one more time and wished him a good night. But when his lad turned around, he saw strange markings, four of them, two beginning on his shoulder wings and trailing down his back, the other two in the same shape but littler and further downwards. They looked like birth-marks, only that he didn´t have them before. They were shaped like… aaaaaaaand, he was up and out of sight. Stoic rubbed his eyes. Has he really seen little wing-shaped marks on the back of his son? He had to get more sleep, that was impossible after all. 


	7. Stay calm, stay calm, stay ca-ahh damnit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, Hiccup has problems with sleeping, develops a new habit (for sleeping) and wow - look what he can suddenly do to make Snotlout obey him. This is gonna be fun. Also there´s a flight through a maze of rocks with consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger-warning for blood and head-injuries. (Nothing that bad,just wanna be sure no one gets a panick attack... wow. That makes it sound really bad, damnit. Really, it isn´t described much, only mentioned to be honest and orrrhhh - just read it.)

When Hiccup laid down, he couldn´t fall asleep, because what his dad had said nagged at the back of his mind like steadily dripping water from a thawing icicle.

  
When he woke up he wasn´t in his bed and it was dark, which made him panic for a moment, but then he felt familiar dry but smooth scales and comforting warmth all around him – he was with Toothless.

…

But _why_ **was** he with Toothless? Said woke up by the movement of Hiccup and lifted his head; also his wing, exposing Hiccup to the beams of the early sun. Toothless had all four legs around him and he was pressed against the strong chest, but was slowly let loose. Toothless got up fast, as usual, but Hiccup needed some time to order his memories. Oh yea, he had crawled over to Toothless and snuggled closer, only there finding enough comfort to finally sleep. Toothless must have curled himself around him while sleeping. Like when you lay two humans next to each other and they sometimes end up waking up in the arms of the other one. Hiccup chuckled at the memory when the whole gang was trapped in a cave and Tuffnut and Snotlout had ended up like that. They wouldn´t look at each other the next few days. When Toothless nudged him the third time, he finally got up, scanned the shredded remains of his shirt and eventually threw it into the fire, finding it not repairable. Good thing he had a second shirt… but it was a little too big. Vikings didn´t change often, only when they wouldn´t fit into their clothes at all anymore. So that meant, either he grew a bit faster in the next time, or he would have to run around a while with a too big version of his usual shirt. It was a bit like when he got his previous one, it had also been too big back then, this here as well reached nearly to his knees. Luckily the sleeves weren´t too much too long, his fingertips were seen when his arms hung at his sides, so there wouldn´t be a problem with grabbing things.

Before he left the house he decided he would fly off the next time his eyes began to burn badly for that seeming to be the first sign of a transformation (it was only a guess, but he would be proved right later), so he decided to make another hand-sign training this day at the academy to practice a new move especially for this without appearing suspicious. “C´mon bud, wanna fly around the island before heading to the academy? Still gotta make yesterday up to you.” He chuckled as he saw the excitement of his dragon and they took off seconds later.  
Hiccup got a bit nervous, when he noticed that his eyesight was better than usual and feared his eyes would have remained in their slit-form, but his father would have noticed the day before. Could be imagination, or an after lasting effect. Yea, that would be it.

The island was as gorgeous as ever, even more when you can see much better, but as soon as the academy came into sight, Hiccup cursed under his breath. He remembered that he had promised Fishlegs to do one of the quizzes and that fly through the maze today, so he couldn´t change that without on one hand disappointing Fishlegs and on the other hand appearing suspicious. He sighed, but didn´t let his face show his slight disappointment of him losing his chance for practicing hand-signs. Well, then this would have to wait until tomorrow. “Okay, just remain calm and everything will be okay.”

 

Remaining calm was _very hard_ today. Snotlout mocked him even more and was even more proud of himself to hide his shame form yesterday and the twins seemed to be more stupid than they´ve ever been. When it came to theoretical lessons (of course the Fishlegs-Astrid team won the quiz… again), he was in the mid of explaining how important it was for the rider to bent the same way as the dragon wanted to not fall off, when a fireball interrupted him by crashing into the stone plate with the picture right next to his head. “Okay, who shot that fireball?” he asked annoyed and soon his gaze landed on Snotlout who was leaning against his dragon and whistled. He huffed and wanted to get back to explaining – _don´t loose your calm, it´s okay, just forget it, he´s not worth the time, keep calm, continue explaining, just ignore hi_ \- when _another_ fireball hit the same spot the first had hit. “Snotlout! Would you _please_ stop that?” he hissed at his cousin who got up with a confident grin. His inner dragon told him to wipe that grin off his face, but that wouldn´t be something Hiccup would do. His inner dragon seemed to like violence? Okay, better remind this. “That´s boring Hiccup – everyone knows that anyways!” he seated himself on Hookfang. “Hey-hey-hey, where do you think you are going?” he stepped in front of the Monstrous Nightmare and glared up to Snotlout. “Out of here, it´s boring, I wanna blow something up. Maybe scare some wild animals.” He said relaxed and grinned smugly. “But I haven´t finished yet – there are other things you need to know for the fly later through the pointy rocks. They´re like a maze and I don´t think you want to be pierced together with your dragon, do you?” Hiccup tried to explain calmly. None of the humans paid attention to Hookfang while Hiccup spoke – she stared up to him with a much calmer expression than she would show usually. “Pff – Hookfang and I are professionals! We´re bound in the soul, it´s like we share one mind.”, “Hey, you´re insulting your dragon when you say she has the same dumbness.” Astrid threw in and Snotlout glared at her, while the Twins laughed. “Anyways, I don´t need this lesson.”, “Snotlout, sit back down.” Hiccup warned in a calm voice slowly raising one hand. “You are not my father, so you don´t have to tell me anyt-“, “ _I said **down**_.” Hiccup repeated hissing while pointing to the ground and he felt a little tingle in his eyes, but ignored it. But Hookfang saw the pupils turn to slits and immediately slumped to the ground to obey the command of the superior being with a stronger smell. Snotlout looked betrayed at his dragon, but mostly shocked. “Wha-? What are you doing Hookfang? Hey- what have you done to her?” Snotlout exclaimed angry, now with his gaze back at Hiccup. But something in the firm stare that met his made him silence, slide down from his dragon and sit down. “Wh-what, you heard him.” He barked slightly frightened at the stares of the others. With a satisfied puff Hiccup turned on his heel and continued lessoning. Snotlout didn´t even try to move and didn´t speak up the rest of the day… at least not to Hiccup.  
His cousin had always been strange, Snotlout knew that, they _all_ knew that, but since when was he… _frightening_? He didn´t know what it was, but that stare had send cold shivers running down his spine, just like the day before. When he looked around, the dragons were calmer than usual as well, as if they wouldn´t dare to move too much, not to mention cause trouble. Except Toothless, he was attentive all the time, nearly alerted – as if he would wait for something that better shouldn´t come.

  
Astrid leaned over to Fishlegs, while still looking at Hiccup. “Did he just stare Hookfang and _Snotlout_ down?” she asked, as if she wasn´t entirely sure if that did really happen just now. “Yeah… strange. Monstrous Nightmares are full of pride and self-confidence, they hardly even obey to stronger dragons and like to fight for their will. To sit down just because a human said it…”, “I know and… Snotlout looked like he was frightened. I mean, by Hiccup? He the most peaceful guy I know. He doesn´t even like competitions because there will be a loser.” Astrid whispered back. “Yeah, right. Maybe Stoic is showing up in his son? Stoic has a frightening stare sometimes.” Fishlegs shivered slightly at the memory, “But… Snotlout? _Seriously_?” Ruffnut leaned over as well. “Hey, watcha guys talking about?” she whisper-shouted and Astrid rolled her eyes. She couldn´t have been louder, could she? “Would you guys listen? Or do you wanna be pierced?” Hiccup asked. They shrieked back because he  suddenlystood directly in front of them, with crossed arms and a slight glare. He hated it when no one would listen. The others asked themselves quietly how he sneaked up without them noticing - he had a meatl leg for gods sake! That thing made noise all the time. “Sorry Hiccup…” Fishlegs mumbled and they rested their conversation in favor of learning dangerous spots to avoid. 

They discussed it further while they flew to the pointy rocks. They didn´t get very far. “What are you talking about all the time anyway?” asked Hiccup, who came from above them. They silenced for a moment. “Oh, just about the strange behavior of the dragons from yesterday.” Astrid answered. “Yes yes, they were really strange actually extremely strange… strange they were.” Fishlegs babbled, but shut up when Astrid shot him a glare over Hiccups shoulder, who also looked at him, but rather curious. “I wanted to ask about that anyway – what was going on? Did they do something specific?” he asked. “Well, I was kept home by Stormfly, so I don´t know very much.” Said Astrid, before the twins burst into their formation, nearly ramming them. “Oh – it was beautiful!” Tuffnut started. “Yeah, they kept us in the arena when we wanted to leave, then they spit fire everywhere, but it wasn´t harmful at all.” Ruffnut continued. “You are saying they spit harmless fire? What - was it mildly warm or what?” Hiccup chuckled doubtfully. “No no, they seemed to be so happy, that they burst and spit it. Like when we cry out of happiness, just the dragon way.” explained Fishlegs, before he stroked Meatlug. “You were really happy weren´t you girl?” she licked his face lovingly. “Okayyyyyy… soooo – any ideas what may have caused this assumed happiness?” they just shook their heads or shrugged. They made some assumptions, but it nagged in the back of Hiccups mind that it had to do with his transformation. He didn´t know what caused this thought, it was just... there.

He was lucky that they didn´t get to speak about his sudden disappearance because they arrived. “Okay, so, we´re diving down and then the pointy rocks start as soon as the area evens out, so remember to get ready early. Any last questions?” “Yes…” Tuffnut begun and Hiccup had a feeling about what would come “… how big is the chance of getting Ruffnut pierced but not me?” Hiccup deadpanned and sighed. “Zero, I mean, guys: _one_ dragon, remember?” Tuffnut looked down and only made some last  >Oh. Yeah. < before they started. They all had different routes, but Hiccup did make sure to make them suitable for the individual dragons, so there wasn´t much hesitation before they dove down.

 

Sadly – the burning didn´t only start when he was angry. Of course he chose one rather difficult route for him and Toothless, but his eyes began to burn from his excitement and his sight was getting dizzy. “No.” he whispered, as the rocks began to become all blurry. They were a grey mass and at some point, he reacted too late and took the wrong way. Of course, if it would be a normal situation like his first ride through these (not that it was a normal situation, but it was still a much better one than the current one) it wouldn´t be such a big problem to ride through a route he didn´t know, but now he was in trouble. He heard Toothless´ frightened roars and Hiccup got it immediately – he had to break up before they got hurt. “UP!” he ordered with a bit of his panic mixing into his voice. Okay - a lot of panic. Toothless went straight upwards, but he heard a ripping sound and with a short look back he saw a shredded flank, then came the uncontrolled struggle from Toothless who also dwelled in panic and he saw how they headed directly for a big sto-

 ----------------------------------------

“Ow…” he groaned when he got his consciousness back. He lifted a hand to his head to rub the most hurting part and found it to be wet and warm. Oh. Bleeding head. Not good.  
He tried to sit up, but it didn´t really work, and he was satisfied with falling back and hitting his head on the back once thank you very much. “Toothless…?” he looked around but it all was kind of a big blur of shades of grey, green and light…? He heard a weak roaring and his throat felt as if he would be strangled at the sound. He sounded hurt just now, didn´t he? Hiccup tried to focus from where the sound came from and accomplished it to make out a big, black and moving spot – Toothless! “B-bud? Are you okay?” he asked and winced as a sharp pain rushed over his temple. Ow! That. _Hurt_.

 ** _A lot_**.

 

The next roar was kind of reassuring that he was okay, so the next he had to do was to call for help. And he tried, really, but he didn´t seem to be the master of his voice any longer. Toothless tried as well but it sounded like he passed out at the first try. Hiccup panicked, why did Toothless pass out? Did he hit his head too? He – he had to help him! He tried again to stand up, but only slumped back and again his head greeted the stone under him. Damn it!

“Help…? Guuuyyyys…? Anyone…?” he cried out as loud as possible, but it wasn´t really loud.

Okay Hiccup: _think_. If he was right, he had been only half through the maze of rocks and the others should have finished it already… which wasn´t good, because the rock maze was big! They wouldn´t hear him from outside. He groaned inside his mind. Okay, but on the other hand, they didn´t know where he would´ve gotten out, so they should seek him by now, being all curious where he is and such… no, damn it! He told them to wait at the long beach when they were ready… ugh, why exactly did he do that? Oh yeah, because he was an overconfident idiot who thought he would get out first and then see in which order the others would get out. Ugh. So he had practically outsmarted himself now – just _perfect_.

And then came the pain. It stroke his head like a lance and it felt as if whatever wound he had on his head was ripped open even more if he interpreted the feeling right. Though it hurt badly, it wasn´t as bad as the transformation and he felt a lot less dizzier than before it started and could even sit up halfway...okay, he only supported himself on his elbows. He took a deep breath and let out a last >help cry< and before he could worry about it getting out as a dragon-cry he passed out again, falling into deep and deaf blackness. 


	8. Waking up and staying home? Not always THAT good.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeah, basically Hiccup waking up and having three of the worst days of this year. And some heat striking him - literally. Being partly a dragon brings more surprised than he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: heat and puking. (Dunno if THAT could trigger something, but well, some people experienced crazy shit so yeah, just wanna make sure.)  
> Enjoy!^^  
> (and YES I know they´re short, I just dunno how to cut the chapters.)

Something wet on his face woke him up and it was a lot warmer around him than the last time he woke up. When he opened his eyesslowly and groaning , he was met with a familiar black face with big green happy eyes. “Hey bud…” he rasped out and wondered why his throat was that raspy and dry. “Water?” there appeared a mug in front of his face that shoved Toothless slightly away. The mug wasn´t hold by a hand… – oh, it was Gobber, which he saw as he let his head loll to the side. He felt a weak grin stretch his face, as he looked up at the blond man. “Thanks…” he murmured before he took a zip – that felt really good. When he looked around, he spotted even more faces. His father on the other side of the bed, Fishlegs, Astrid, the twins and Gothi. Oh, Snotlout was standing a bit further away, together with Meatlug. “You okay? Bet your head hurts badly.” Gobber said jokingly and nudged him with his mug. Memories flashed his head and he shot up, at the same time he reached up to his head. “My eyes – I was – then the flag ripped and – “ he felt his face go pale “…the rock.” When Toothless jumped onto his bed to lick his face again, he cupped the face and shoved it away far enough to scan it – wasn´t there…? He spotted a big and deep scratch over his right eye, but it wasn´t too deep – still would leave a scare. He gently stroke over it with his thumb. “Oh… sorry bud I-” he was interrupted when his last meal wanted to see the sunlight again the wrong way and he quickly clapped his mouth shut. He was reached a bucket to puke into and wasn´t that a great morning so far. It didn´t get better either.

In fact, he had to stay in the house three whole days, because Gothi said so. It wasn´t that good of a time to see nearly everything you eat again not even an hour later. Surprisingly, Toothless stayed at his side all the time without seeming bored or locked in, he looked more worried and Hiccup had to assure him that he would be okay, because Toothless refused to eat the first day. That is, until Hiccup got enough, climbed out of his bed and shoved the foot into his mouth before holding it should so that Toothless HAd to swallow it (even though he called it >just feeding with a bit more force<). Of course his father was against it, but Hiccup had the same stubbornness all Vikings had and with that continued it, ignoring his father for once. It was enough that _he_ was sick, he couldn´t handle his dragon getting sick _too_.

Nevertheless he stayed in the house – didn´t mean he couldn´t get visited. And he was visited every day, but not only by his friends, mostly by the dragons to be exactly, especially the smaller ones. It started on the second day, when Meatlug suddenlybusted and halfway crashed into his room through the entrance for Toothless with a screaming Fishlegs clinging onto her. Fishlegs explained that she was heading the day before nonstop for Hiccups house, and he couldn´t stop her this time. And Meatlug seemed to be as worried as Toothless, but left seemingly satisfied after Hiccup assured her he would just lag a little bit. But that was only in the morning – and it was only the beginning. The other dragons of the dragon academy seemed to not listen to their owners as well and just run off (like Barf and Belch) to force their way to Hiccup. With or without their owners. Like Hookfang did, but Hiccup could hear Snotlout screaming at her outside and she only left after he stroked the big snout gently and told her he would be fine - he even managed a smile. By afternoon the other villagers came as well, also with their problems as they would usually do, until Stoic had enough and locked the door. He was pretty sure the stress wouldn´t do any good for the recovery of his lad. For once Hiccup didn´t argue, he cuddled with Toothless in peace and got much sleep.

It was the night between the second and the third day, when he suddenly woke up from pain. It was another one than the other times. It wasn´t just the plain pain, something in his chest seemed to burn and it was too hot to bear, painfully hot.The heat he felt when he transformed wasn´t even getting near it. He muffled his little whimpers that escaped his mouth with his cushion, but soon felthow tears wet the fabric. Toothless held him closer and tried to cool him down by licking his face, but it only helped a little.

Eventually the pain eased away without any transforming (which Hiccup was very thankful form, because he sure as hell had no idea yet how to explain the whole thing to his dad... or anyone else for that matter). He was wet with sweat and his clothes clung grossly at him, but it was over and he was so glad about it, he didn´t care a bit about his clothes (or the slimy and sticky saliva in his face). If Stoic would´ve been awake, he would´ve heard heavy panting from above. Hiccup fell asleep pretty fast after that even though he was sure he felt a little bit warmer than usual – but it was a good warmth.

Even though he felt fresh and healthy, he was forced to stay at the house to make sure he was really fine the third day. He didn´t mind, though; he drew Toothless and mend the ripped flag. The new warm feeling in his chest remained steadily but it didn´t bother him at all.


	9. Well, would you look at that

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup´s still a bad liar, his taste-buds are having a party going on and oh, who are those two sets of eyes that follow him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, I can´t believe I already got kudos for this! Like, I literally squealed upon seeing this! Thank ya guys so SO much!!!!

He was happy the next days outside went smoothly and without any (further) abnormalities. He practiced the hand signs with the others (and they didn´t question his hand signs, which where rubbing his eyes and mentioning to his back or chest) and some days later, they decided to eat all together around a fireplace to celebrate the big progress they had made in their training (but it was actually just an excuse to eat much more meat than usually).

Hiccup shot a curious look to Astrid while he chew his chicken (man, he should eat that more often, it tasted better than he remembered, the fish as well, even though he usually didn´t like fish… must have had to dosomething  with his inner dragon), because she was about to say something but stopped herself and froze with the alarmed look and outstretched hand when he bit into the chicken. “Wash shat yoursh?” he asked, even though he was pretty sure it was his chicken and not her. She blinked before she straightened up. “Actually I wanted to warn you, because it came directly out of the fire and you should´ve burned your entire mouth, but it – doesn´t it _hurt_?” She leaned forward with squinted eyes and clear confusion all over her face. Fishlegs, who sat on his other side, wore the same expression as Astrid. Little did Hiccup know that those two were curious enough about his strange behavior lately to decide to observe him closer. Hiccup took his time to chew the chicken down, to buy time for seeking for the best answer and decided to tell the truth. “No? Actually, it isn´t that hot.” He shrugged. It didn´t feel that hot, really, it could be a bit hotter to be honest. He took another bite and shrugged to prove it (and to not have to answer more questions) and it really wasn´t hot enough. So he leaned it near the fire to heat it up a bit. Astrid and Fishlegs still looked with a doubtful expression at him and he got a little bit nervous. When he felt his eyes prickle, he rapidly blinked and told himself it was only because of the fire. Suddenly Tuffnut on the other side exclaimed a little shout of surprise and fell backwards, which send his own food flying through the air and landing on Snotlouts helmet. When Tuffnut shot back up, he looked  to Hiccupas well, who stared back slightly amused but most of all puzzled. “Whoa, guys, I think the chicken is bad, I just thought Hiccup would have dragon eyes.” Ruffnut punched him so he fell back down again. They laughed at him, but Hiccup got only more nervous. “Oh yeah, sure thing. What next? Wings?” he joked and got himself another bite of that chicken. Well, not really that much warmer, but at least a bit better.

They rambled on and on, but suddenly Hiccup yelled “DOWN!” and they all ducked at the command, but he himself gripped a basket with fish at the same time to throw the fish into the air. A little swarm of Terrible Terrors came out from what seemed to be nowhere and shot right above their heads. They snatched the fish out of the air before they disappeared in the same move but opposite direction. It all happened within one second.   
Terrors were very social dragons and often found in groups, so sometimes they would come out of nowhere and snatch away all the food you have while flying past you and get away with it before you can even react to it. Like just now, except they got fish and not all their grilled food.   
Cautious, the other teens got up and scanned Hiccup who still held the basket. “How did you know they would come?” asked the twins at the same time, they seemed rather excited about it. Hiccup hesitated but then shrugged. “Just… a feeling?” he really didn´t know – it was as if he felt their presence, which was impossible for…humans… but he was some sort of human-dragon-mix, so it could be possible? Fishlegs seemed to be spirited. “Oh, oh, maybe we can sense the dragons at some point too? When we spent enough time with ours? That´d be so cool.” He said and Hiccup decided to play along. “Maybe? I mean, it could have been a one-time-thing or I just saw them unconsciously.” Hiccup shrugged, it wasn´t such a big deal for him anyway.

 

Oh, he was still a bad liar. Especially when he tried to lie to himself. Of course it was a big deal, it rose panic in his chest which did warm up a little at that. He finished his chicken really quickly and then excused himself to fly around with Toothless. He said he would have to make up for the days he was locked in the house and thus took off. Astrid and Fishlegs shot each other a look, but silently agreed to let him be. 

 

Little did they now that the two just flew to the cove where Hiccup lived through another transformation. This time, the pain wasn´t as bad as last time and he didn´t scream, but more heat remained in his chest afterwards and he was pretty sure the wings were a bit stronger than the last time. The scales seemed to be harder and thicker as well, but that could be his imagination. He did try to fly again and reached two meters for several seconds, but slumped down when his strength left him. He was awake this time when he turned back and it felt just… gross. Awkward, but mostly gross, but at least it didn´t hurt that much (thank Thor). He just felt as if he would be stuffed with more than he could fit into him when the wings grew back into his back, but at the same time, the room seemed to grow with each second, with every time he thought he couldn´t take in that much. Good thing he had taken his shirt off before it was too late, so it wasn´t damaged at all and he could slip it on. It would be pretty hard to explain why he didn´t have any shirt anymore and the "new" one was in shreds.


	10. What being partly dragon brings with it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The transformation brings more than just scales with it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a filler, really, but some informations I wanted to be known.

His father slept already when he got back home (after some flying around the island as he had promised it to Toothless) and he didn´t even try to sleep in his own bed, because if he now knew one thing, it was that he couldn´t sleep without Toothless around him anymore. Toothless didn´t mind, though. In fact, he seemed rather happy about it and Hiccup had his theories why.   
When he had been in his dragon form, he had questioned Toothless and he somewhat said, that when Hiccup was like that, he was a bit like a sun for the dragons and something tugged at their middle and  he now was an even more respected member in their community of dragons than he had been before. It seemed like the dragons liked his smell and thus he was welcomed more than other humans anyway, but that was more of a side effect. It was a bond they shared what was making him special. What thatexactly meant wasn´t really clear to Hiccup, but he was sure it was a somewhat good thing. After all, he _had_ been on even better terms with the dragons after his first transformation. They nearly forced him to spent time with them (for example pushing him to his usual seat in the middle of their circle at lunch instead of letting him walk there by himself) and dragon training was a lot easier when the dragons listened to at least him.

 

The days went by peacefully, though, he disappeared lately pretty much often, because he felt a transformation coming up and still had the opinion the others wouldn´t react actually… _positively_. Even worse – **he couldn´t control it!**   
Okay, so it didn´t hurt that much, _okay_ , it didn´t take so long and he could somewhat suppress it and _okay_ , he could make some little sparks come out of his mouth and fly much better but _he still couldn´t control when it would come out_. He would feel the prickling and burning in his eyes, then the heat in his chest rose before the pain arched through his back and limbs.   
On the other hand: he was also improving at conversing with dragons. Not that he really practiced it, but he would get what a Terror would hiss in his ear even in his human form after some time, sometimes from a Gronckle or Toothless too, but the others were somewhat really hard to understand.

Unfortunately he didn´t know he was being watched by four keen eyes.


	11. Observation before returning to a mess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> okay, so the two "detectives" collect some strange things they noticed about Hiccup and something more than just "strange" or "awkward" is the last straw. But then hell brakes out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really begin to hate summaries -.-

_Unfortunately he didn´t know he was being watched by four keen eyes._

 

They _saw_ his changes and little  >slip-ups<. Like when he accidently gripped the still bright red and (definitely burning) hot end of a sword with his bare hand and not even noticed at first. A Terror, those got a liking to sit on his shoulders lately, hissed at him warningly and he quickly changed the site he gripped before Gobber saw it.

They _saw_ how he ate the raw fish a Nightmare offered him (he  had always said he wouldn´t like fish and he that found it even more disgusting when it was raw). 

They _saw_ how he imitated quiet hisses to a Nadder while he calmed it down from a tantrum and that it worked.

They _saw_ it – and their worries grew more and more with each time he disappeared suddenly and didn´t come back for the rest of the day.

And they knew _something_ was going on.

Fishlegs was on his way to Gobber for a checkup with Meatlug, when he spotted Hiccup in the forge as well. He stood behind Gobber who already greeted him but his gaze would flicker over to him every few seconds to check on his behavior, even while he explained why he came. That was when it happened first. Hiccup sneezed while he stood in front of the oven. Nothing uncommon so far, true, but he didn´t just sneeze. There were little sparks flying around and a thin line of fire shot out of his mouth like an arrow and hit directly into the oven. The fire grew exploding and Hiccup was fast enough to duck under it, before it died down seconds later. Gobber scolded him to better look out that the dragons controlled their fire at least in the forge and Hiccup accepted without arguing, he even act-scolded the Terror, even though he only said the words, but stroked the little beast between the horns because Gobber didn´t look. Fishlegs had it hard not to stare, he was just a bystander, but it was _really_ hard. Hiccup just spit fire because he _sneezed_.

**_Sneezed!_ **

Fishlegs wasn´t sure if this was absolutely awesome or horribly frightening. But he knew two things. _First_ , he had to tell Astrid as soon as he could. _Second_ , Hiccup wasn´t human any longer – if he even was before.

 

“He _WHAT_?”

“Sneezed fire Astrid. Right into the oven and the fire in there got some kind of an explosive boost.”

“Okay, _that´s it_. I could accept it, when he eats ridiculous hot food while still finding it a bit cold, when he can touch red-hot iron and when he whispers with dragons – but when he starts to  _spit fire_ now, then it´s definitely enough!” she exclaimed loudly while pacing. “We´re following him when he disappears today.” She decided and nodded with a firm look of determination on her face. Fishlegs fiddled with a piece of his clothing.

“But even if he doesn´t notice us the dragons won´t track him and fly home instead– with us.”

“We don´t need our dragons, he will surely fly to their cove like the first time, because the other idiots can´t find it when they have to walk.”

“But… you do?”

“Of course, I followed him before the whole dragon-training thing happened.”

She was right, they found it. It took it´s time, but it wasn´t like they had to hurry or something, since Hiccup presumably spend the rest of the day there. But when they arrived there was no Hiccup and no Toothless, not even a sign that they had been there recently. They weren´t anywhere near either.   
“Where _is_ he?” she groaned and slumped to the ground. They had searched nearly the whole forest. He wouldn´t be in the part that could be seen from the village so they had left that part out. “Maybe he has already gone back?” Fishlegs assumed and shifted his weight nervously. Something about the forest was… strange. It was so… _quiet_. Astrid seemed to notice it too. “Isn´t it too quiet for the forest? I can´t hear even one Terrible Terror, even though they use to show up on every fourth tree to throw things at you when you rest.” She scanned the trees around them, but there wasn´t even any movement from a normal animal. “Okay, this is strange.” Astrid added and assumed to get back to the village, which Fishlegs happily agreed to – the quiet forest was weirding him out.

When they got back, the village was a huge mess of chaos. Dragons run around wildly and either crashed stuff, knocked it over or shoved humans around while they run around uncontrollably. They, at some point, even started to roast things, as if they would be chased by something that freaked them out. The riders had to chase all of them into the arena and lock them there, since they couldn´t calm them down properly. Every time they did it, another dragon would run by and they would panic again. Not even their own dragons were under control.   
The teens sat in front of the arena, panting and damped with sweat, when Stoic came up to them in a rush, a dark glare on his face. He had just finished putting out the small fires the still raging dragons had caused and was furious. He lost a lot of his steam though, when he took in the heavy mood and couldn´t spot his son under them. “She… she tried to bite me.” Fishlegs sniffed depressed and his grip on his arms thightened. “And we were nearly burnt to ash…”, “Seriously, this time…” the twins sniffed as well. They knew, if they couldn´t control the dragons any longer, Stoic would have to send them away, and they could be as tuff and Viking-like as they wanted, they all clung to their beloved dragons, these reptiles were their friends. “Where´s Hiccup anyway? We need him now more than we ever did.” Snotlout barked, but his voice broke at the end. It was after that, that Stoic approached them. They shot up and all run to their chief. “Please don´t send them away, they will calm down!”, “Yeah, we got this, they´re locked in, so they won´t cause any damage!”, “Give us another chance!”, “It´s not their fault, something frightened them!” he heard them beg. It showed him how truly desperate they were. When the begs mixed up into an unintelligible mess he stopped them by raising his hands. “First of all, I won´t send them away, so everybody calm down.” They sighed relieved. “Now, second thing, we need to get some sense into their heads. Where have you seen Hiccup the last time? Wasn´t he with you while you chased them in there?” there was silence. “No, he flew off again shortly after lunch. If he would´ve been with us, or anywhere in the village, the dragons would be overgrown puppies by now.” Snotlout answered and tried to seem as unconcerned and tuff as always, but his voice betrayed him. He knew his strict and thick skulled father – he wouldn´t tolerate a dragon that didn´t obey it´s owner. And he knew his dragon wasn´t another weapon that could be replaced. Stoic glared at the arena. The dragons didn´t spit fire anymore and calmed down by themselves to a point where they were only slightly boisterous. That was probably because they were so many locked into so little space. If he recalled it correctly, his son had told him that dragons are social creatures within a small group, but they absolutely didn´t like it when too many where in one place, because nearly all of them were territorial. They felt like driven into a corner. And apparently, that was the same feeling Stoic and the teens felt flood and drown them.


	12. Kidnapping is bad, really really bad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So someone gets kidnapped - who would´ve guessed?! Also, trigger-warning: blindfolds, cages, ropes, kiddnapping and yeah... gags.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have fun! :D

Good thing he was used to fly without seeing everything detailed, because his vision blurred as his eyes burned. He had to hurry to get to the cove in time – he really didn´t want to imagine what would happen if he began transforming while still flying (his shirt would rip as well and yeah, that would still be a problem). Bad thing, though, he didn´t see IT coming. The only thing was that he heard a quiet swizzle of some object passing through air but it was too late to react and three bolas at once wrapped themselves around them. Toothless wings were unable to move and Hiccup as well as he was pressed against Toothless with his arms between them. The began to hurt from the pressure and the uncomfortable angle they were bent. The bolas turned them into a big struggling thing that crashed into a tree and soon fell to the ground after hitting several branches. Hiccup still tried to free himself to help them, but Toothless` angry struggling seemed to strengthen the grip of the ropes even more, making it harder to move. “To-Toothless, calm down, you, ugh, you have to hold _still_!” Toothless obeyed at the last word but the ropes cut really hard into his back, sites and legs. Hiccup couldn´t even trigger the flag. He heard an uncomfortable whine from his bud while trying to free at least one of his arms, but soon enough there were rushed footsteps. In addition to that, his eyes still burned as if there would be salt in them and the warmth in his chest raised to an uncomfortable heat. Panic spread through him even more – what if he transformed now and they would see?!  
It didn´t take long until they were found by five men. They were all big and bulky, one shouted that they had found them and the other four tried to reach them cautiously with shields. Toothless shot and hit them, but only the shields and when his limit was reached they just stood back up. “Back off!” Hiccup growled and automatically bared his teeth but they didn´t even look at him. Why should they? He was a wimp and a tied one too. After some struggling from both sides (much to Hiccup´s not-pleasure, because with every movement from Toothless the ropes cut deeper and more painful into his flesh) they had blocked Toothless´ mouth by tying a thick belt around his head. He still growled and glared at them, but the last thing Hiccup heard was a high-pitched whine when he was hit at the head and thus knocked out.

 

The awakening was awful. He was blindfolded, his shirt was missing, his hands were tied behind his back and his legs were bound together too. He was silenced with a gag as well. It muffed his screams of pain as a very painful transformation came over him. He didn´t know why it hurt so much this time or why it was so hard to transform back, but he couldn´t even see it, so he was left without a clue. Good thing he didn´t wear a shirt so it couldn´t be ripped in the process and tell his kidnappers anything. Bad thing, he didn´t wear a shirt and he was surrounded by a cold wetness in some sort of metal cage all around him. The metal bars were even under him. Also, he felt the familiar swaying of a boat. Or to say it better – a ship. He was pretty sure he was in the bilge if the muffled shouts and footsteps from above him said everything.   
He huffed again. So, let´s sum it up: he was kidnapped, blindfolded and gaged and in a for him unbreakable cage on some foreign ship sailing to who-knows-where.

Great.

Just _great_.

The only positive thing would be to say that he had been in even worse situations – but he still wasn´t a good liar. If he could choose, he would rather be alone in the arena with a dozen of raging and completely untamed Monstrous Nightmares than… well: here. Where-ever >here< was.   
Okay, pep-talking still wasn´t his thing. So be it, it wouldn´t change everything anyway.


	13. Not only a kidnapper, but a maniac as well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That lunatic isn´t only a kidnapper, but a slave driver, sadist and just a big jerk as well? OOooooohhhh, who would have guessed?! And GUESS who it is, ladies and gentlemen?   
> Yes! The redheaded maniac we all hate and love with passion at the same time!
> 
> Also, th dragons show their musical talent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... wait, there IS only that one lunatic at this universe, right? And wow, would you look at the length of this chapter? I was finally able to cut it at a normal length.

He could really need some good pep-talk now. Because the ship has halted and his cage had been lifted by some men. They grunted at the probably heavy weight of the cage (because Hiccup was still some sort of talking fishbone and thus wouldn´t be the cause of it) and he rolled around and banged against the bars uncountable times. He was sure he would be littered with bruises in a few hours. The blindfold and ropes made it even harder to keep his orientation, which meant he didn´t have any of it left until the cage was set on the ground again. Sounded like stone. And felt like stone as he discovered because he laid on his back and thus could reach through the bars with one hand to feel the stone beneath the cage.   
Good thing– the blindfold and gag were loose enough to shake them off after he had hit the bars with his head several times – bad thing: it was still dark. He huffed frustrated and strained his ears to hear anything that would help him. He heard footsteps, growling and hissing of various dragons but no Toothless. Also many humans, who talked to each other in low voices until they all silenced simultaneously. “You should beg you got the right kid this time – if you want to keep your head that is.” Hiccup froze and panic crept into every inch of him. He knew this voice too good and it made cold shudders run down his spine. When he heard shifting fabric behind him he quickly turned and saw that the darkness disappeared because a concealment of some sort that hung above the cage was lifted. Hiccup´s fear of who was the owner of the previous voice was proved right as he saw the big golden buckle, the blue tattoo and piercing eyes with a truly deranged glint in them, mirrored by the twisted grin that soon spread over his face. “Dagur…” he breathed out shuddering while he felt his body crawl to the other side of the cage. “HA!” Dagur exclaimed victorious and pulled back the entire fabric so that the arena was revealed and Hiccup momentarily blinded.   
Hiccup was in their arena and the picture was shocking as he scanned his surroundings. It was similar to the one of the Outcasts, but it was much larger and there were much more cages, all filled with dragons whose screeches, growls, hisses and whines begged for release. They silenced though when Hiccup begun to look at them much to the Berserkers surprise, because these beasts usually never silenced, not even at night. Hiccup saw Thunderdrums, Nadders, Gronckles, Monstrous Nightmares, Zippelbacks, Scauldrons, Whispering Deaths and weren´t that even Changewings? All kinds were at least twice there and Hiccup felt a piercing pain in his chest when he saw in which condition they were. The Scauldrons seemed to be as dry as the stone ground, the Changewings didn´t blend in anymore, the spikes of the Whispering Deaths were truncated and his teeth yellow and most of them didn´t seem to have enough strength to even stand, seeing them laying limply on the ground. “Like what you see? Look at these beasts, all oh so mighty and dangerous…” he walked to one of the cages with a Nightmare and it whined and backed off. “…well, they _were_.” Dagur snickered and Hiccup glared pained daggers at him. “You… you monster.” he hissed at him with rage boiling in his chest and heating it up. He breathed heavy to calm down, a transformation at this moment would most likely… well, kill him? At least something similar. Okay, not the transformation, but the reaction of the Berserkers. “Me? A monster? Ohohohohohohuhuhahahaha!” he bent over, held his stomach and soon pretended to wipe away a tear. “Oh no, _those_ are the monsters.” He gestured to all the cages with outstretched arms. “But, you see – they´re only frightened of me. Unlike your trained dragons on Berk.” He spit the name of his island and begun to pace in front of Hiccups cage, but it was that calm pace villians liked to do. “That´s not actually helping us to use them, they just cowardly try to get as far away from me as possible.” He continued and Hiccup had an idea where this was going. “And I thought that was how it should be – until I saw _you_.” He had stopped and bend forward in Hiccups direction only to be met with a half-hearted glare from the shorter brunette. “ ** _You_** somehow accomplished it to train them and make them to your allies. I heard and saw enough of it, they even protect their riders as if they were equal friends.”  >damn right, because they are< Hiccup thought but continued to listen quietly. He had to think of a plan. “But that is impossible, they are just overgrown dumb lizards, I bet the most of them can´t even think properly.” Hiccup wanted to cut in, but clenched his jaw instead. One failure now and it could be his last one. The strained arrows that pointed at him from the rim of the arena were enough proof of that. “Seems like it is like training dogs, but there also seems to be a trick behind it that it works with dragons.” Hiccup had to admit, that Dagur may be deranged, but he wasn´t dumb to figure that out. “So? Wanna talk about dragons, _Hiccy_?” the poison and the nickname made him shiver, but not with fear like Dagur thought, rather with disgust. “About how you train them? These around you for example? For, I dunno…” he pretended to think before he grinned in a twisted way. “… _me_?” he whispered in a threatening way. Hiccup shivered again when his fantasy showed him several ways Dagur would use to _bring_ him to train these dragons if he refused. “And then what? Attack Berk with them? Why should I do this? I mean, it wouldn´t help you if you threaten to kill me, because a dead me couldn´t train them.” Dagur didn´t lose his grin but straightened up and snapped with his fingers without disrupting their eye-contact. A large door behind him burst open and one second later there were five men carrying a rattling cage with a large fabric above it. Hiccups eyes went wide – he wouldn´t – he _can´t_ \- they pulled the fabric away and Hiccup felt like crying. Why didn´t he think of this earlier? Of course there was a way to force him to do _anything_. Toothless banged angrily against the thick bars and tried to wriggle his way out of the uncountable ropes and belts, which tied him up. When he sniffed his human he automatically turned his head to him and whined when he saw his condition. Toothless didn´t want to be caged anymore, he wanted his human to be on his back where he was safe, he didn´t want him to be caged and hurt. He wanted them both to be free.   
His whining made the other dragons whine too, they also wanted to be free so desperately. “What have you done?!” Hiccup shouted and crawled into the direction of Toothless, but tripped and again hit the hard bars on the ground. Ouch. “So? Did you change your mind by any chance?”

He had to think of a plan – quick. He struggled to get into a half-way sitting position. “When I train your dragons… don´t you fear I would use them against you? Even your armada couldn´t handle so much raging dragons at once, especially not when they are trained and led anyway.” Hiccup tried to threaten, but Dagur just snatched a pipe from one of his men and walked up to Toothless. “When you try to turn on me…” he stopped in front of the cage and lifted the pipe as pure horror flooded Hiccups mind “… I will just do THIS!” he used the pipe like a spear and hit one of Toothless wings with it.

Fear clung at his bones and terror froze his blood while a deep rage burned through his chest and his heart was ripped into shreds as he was forced to watch. The sound of breaking bones echoed in his mind and it felt like cold hands would strangle him from behind. Toothless could only whine his painfilled, high-pitched sounds and stop to struggle to ease the horrific pain in his wing. Dagur lifted the pipe again while the first tears run down Hiccups cheeks and he snapped. “STOP! No! _NO!_ I will do it _! I will do it!_ Stop it! _STOP!_ **_STOP!_** ” he screamed desperately and Dagur stopped while gazing over to the caged brunette with a satisfied grin. He knew that would work. “It´s good to see you so cooperative.” Dagur purred and stepped back from the cage with Toothless.

Hiccup couldn´t handle his bud being hurt. He just couldn´t let this happen. Not even if it meant to help Dagur, he just couldn´t. It would rip him apart and he would probably go insane from the mental pain and the guilt. He screamed the first thing his mouth could manage, he didn´t even really pay any attention to his words or their meaning, he didn´t listen to what Dagur said. He only heard the pained whines of Toothless and his own sobs and screams which testified his hurt soul. It hurt, it hurt so badly, he couldn´t stop his tears. Screw Dagur, screw the Berserkers seeing him this weak, _screw them all_ – he just wanted to his friend. His friend who was hurt because of him and somehow help him. But he couldn´t do anything, he couldn´t ease the pain, he could only let Dagur stop hurting him even more.   
He let himself fall limply to the ground and just cry. He usually wasn´t this weak. He didn´t cry so easily bu _t it h **urt**_. It hurt so unbearable. He couldn´t handle so much pain and guilt washing over and drowning him.

Dagur left him alone after telling him to be back when Hiccup had calmed down. He cried some hours longer, even after Toothless had stopped his pained whining and switched to a concerned one. He was worried – _over Hiccup of all things._   
The other dragons, which never did meet him before, felt it too. They felt how this human was different and kind of a leading figure, how he _belonged_ to them – _how he was a one of them and **how he was hurt.**_ They grew worried as well after they accepted him as one of them so easily. The wish to ease his pain, to make him happy and comfortable grew as big as their wish to be free. They wanted him to be free as well, even more so and it irritated them at the beginning. But it was clear those instincts were right when his scent reached them, together with the one of the Nightfury. This human… smelled as much like a dragon as he did like a human. It was confusing, but the scents of so many dragon kinds on him were comforting, mixing together with his own unique calming and pleasing scent, making them relax and accept him fully. Hiccup himself at first didn´t even notice the calm attitude of the other dragons. How they shifted into more comfortable positions and seemed to be at peace. But when some of them purred and murmured calming he indeed stopped crying. He was exhausted and his mind was somewhat blank, but he recognized a dragon that tried to calm him when he heard him. And damn, there was so much concern and attempt to calm in their rough voices that  weresuddenly so smooth he couldn´t resist the calm fealing of somewhat-savity, care and peace wash over him. He sniffed one last time before he fought himself into a sitting-position and scanned the dragons. He got it, he knew these looks in their eyes. It were the same looks the dragons at Berk gave him when they were eating with him or at other occasions when he was practically alone with them. They looked at him as if he was part of their big family. A beloved member of their family. This thought was somehow comforting and he even cracked a little smile, disrupting the concerned whines and changing them into pleased purrs. 

Those purrs soon melted together and for Hiccup it sounded more like a song than anything else. If someone would ask him, he would say he never heard a more beautiful song than this. It filled him with comforting warmth and he closed his eyes in pleasure, letting the sound vibrate though his bones and comfort his ears and mind.


	14. Shaman-time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dragons continue with their "music", Hicup joins and Dagur´s flipping his shit because he doesn´t know how to deal with this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just... don´t ask, okay? I´m tired. And somehow sorry for this summary. But as said, I´m tired.

Berserker #1 awoke from his slumber abruptly by a strange humming. He nearly fell from his chair when he got that the dragons made this sound in a harmony and gazed into the arena. The kid in the cage sat upright and didn´t cry anymore but rocked himself slowly for- and backwards again and again, as if he was in a trance of some sort. The humming and purring and other sounds the dragons seemed to make all together like a song only added to his theory. He shoved Berserker #2 to wake him up and whispered to check this out. They both found the kid and the dragons to act strange enough to better report it. Berserker #1 left and run to Dagur to get him while #2 continued to observe the strange scene.   
After a minute it was creeping him out already, but he stood still in his position. When he gazed over to the black dragon he saw that it held still and its eyes were closed, as if it would sleep -it shouldn´t though, they thought it would be in too much pain to sleep for at least the next day. His gaze flicked back to the still rocking kid and he found its eyes to be closed as well. When the door behind him opened and #1 got back with their leader, he backed away from his watching point to make room for him. But then it changed. He saw how the kid opened his mouth and a new sound was added to the >song<. It didn´t sound human, though. A low but really smooth grumble-purring sound escaped the small kid as he rocked stronger for- and backwards. This new sound was easy to be heard amidst the others, it seemed to be standing in the front as well. “What´s he doing?” Dagur asked no one particularly and continued to watch. The dragons had never done something like this before, they always just whined, hissed or roared, but never purred or whatever they did now. “How long has this been going on?” he asked angrily #1 but #1 just shrugged. “He was crying the last time we checked.” He answered. “And then he was like this” #2 added. Dagur punched #1 hard enough to break his nose and send him to the ground before he looked back into the arena. Stupid guards, he was sure they just slept again instead of watching. Unlike the guards he not only scanned Hiccup and the Nightfury, but the other dragons as well. They… seemed relaxed and all of them looked concentrated at the same time. Their gazes were directed at Hiccup. So… he must be the cause of their strange behavior, seeing him doing the same thing as they did. Hiccup reminded him of the shamans he had met in some less cultivated tribes. They brought themselves into a trance to communicate with the stars, ghosts or whatever and Hiccup acted just like them.

 

Little did he know that Hiccup was actually communicating with the dragons in a way the earth hasn´t seen in ages. Hiccup wasn´t the first one of his kind, but the last one was only familiar to the old, very old tribes in the south where they had legends of humans being also dragons and leading them to victory in great and holy wars (which was incorrect, actually the ones that were just like Hiccup brought long times of peace with them). Of course, every legend had hint of truth in it. The stars knew the truth, they saw what happened when the humans knew beforehand there was someone amongst them who was different, so they wouldn´t tell the humans anymore. They wouldn´t tell what those with a hint of destiny within them were capable of.

Dagur stormed into the arena after he had kicked the door open. The loud humming stopped instantly and Hiccup was the last one to stop; his last tone, which vibrated through the air and was thrown back from the walls like an echo, crept the guards out. Hiccup sat still but his head was still bent back so that he faced the ceiling of his cage. “HEY! What are you doing with the dragons?!” Dagur demanded to know while he stomped angrily to Hiccups cage. When he reached his destination Hiccup slowly lowered his head, but only enough to look Dagur in the eyes. Dagur flinched inwardly. Hiccups face was absolutely blank and his eyes… not only seemed it as if they were slightly glowing but also were his pupils formed to slits. “Training.” Hiccup answered cold and Dagur couldn´t even tell if it was the truth or not. But he got angry. “How is this trance-thing and making roaring sounds anywhere near training?!” he still shouted, but not as loud as before. Hiccup lowered his head further and blinked, Dagur had to find the slits be replaced by normal circles and he questioned himself if the slits had been a trick of the light or something. “Imitating the sounds of the dragons makes them feel comfortable and thus they´re easier to train. They also listen more eagerly.” Hiccup explained in a calm and monotone voice that begun to creep evenDagur out. But he would do the devil showing that. “Hmpf, you better make your job as my slave and dragon trainer properly, or else your big lizard´s head will be my next helmet.” He hissed and stormed out of the arena, ignoring the silent glares from the other dragons.


	15. Being a father

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The situation back at Berk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MY CHAP-LOG ISN´T DEFECT BUT I´M SO DAMN HAPPY ABOUT ALL THESE SUPER NICE COMMENTS AND THE KUDOS AND OMG THANK YOU!!! YOU GUYS ARE DA BEST!! And yes I know it´s super short, but anyway, next one is gonna be longer. And there´s still some big things comin´ up!

A whole week had passed and Stoic didn´t sleep the last three days. He couldn´t. It was like back when his wife got killed by a dragon - only his son, his son he had to take care of, let him keep his saneness and mind over all the sadness. He was the one light remaining in this dark, dark and deep pit of feelings he seemingly couldn´t escape from.

But he was gone. And he took his light with him.

Dark bags under his eyes were the proof of his restlessness, but nearly no one dared to look into his eyes (or his face at all) so Gobber was one of the first to see them, when he came back from the forest. They sent out search parties the eight time, but despite them being away for two days, they of course didn´t find Hiccup.

“Stoic, when was the last time you slept?” Gobber asked in a half concerned and half scolding voice. Stoic brushed it of. “Have you found anything?” Gobber sighed. It made his tuff heart ache to see his best friend like this. “Not even a hair…” he rummaged through his bag “… but we found one of these.” He held up a bola. Stoic sent it one look and was about to look away, but then he catched sight of something and grabbed it to inspect it closer.There was the crest of the Berserkers on it. He clutched it tight enough to nearly break it, while his rage boiled up more and more. “Dagur…” he growled in a low voice and his eyes filled with poison. Exactly one second after he stood up and sucked in enough air to call for his men to ready the ships, Gobber stood up and clapped his hands above Stoics mouth. Thus, Stoics shout was muffled and he quickly shoved Gobbers hands away. “What are you doing? We know where he is, so we rescue him!” Gobber sighed deeply. “Stoic, if we go now, we will be overrun by his armada. The dragons are still acting crazy since Hiccup is away so we can´t rely on them, whatever the kids say and the most powerful of them isn´t here either. Also – Dagur isn´t called _deranged_ for nothing, he could kill Hiccup if we try anything!”   
Stoic didn´t want to admit it, but he knew Gobber was right. He tried to hold his stare, but in the end gave up and slumped back down. Gobber, again sighting, sat down next to him at pat his back. “I know it´s hard, I really wish the cards would lay otherwise, but we really… can´t just burst in there.”, “But what else should we do?” Stoic asked back a bit louder than intended, but it was all so frustrating! The sight of the empty chair in front of him burned a deep hole into his heart.  
“We just do what Hiccup would do.” Came the answer and as the two grown men looked up there stood five teenagers in front of them. The girl with the crossed arms and fire in her gaze was the one who spoke up. “What do you mean?” Stoic asked cautious. He would listen, but he wasn´t sure what those kids came up with.


	16. Everyone snaps at some point

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, basically Dagur being the biggest jerk on earth for a whole week and even the calm and collected Hiccup has enough of it. And he scares the shit outta him, which I found really damn funny to write.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again a thanks for all the love guys, and please correct me if you find errors, english still isn´t my first language and I want it to be at least grammatically perfect (good). Enjoy\^^/!

One week. He was in this _damn_ cage for a whole _week_ now!  
He synchronized, like he now called it, with the dragons several times every day, it suppressed his transformation somehow. He was really thankful for that, because his secret wasn´t lifted and he wouldn´t have to face the most likely deadly reaction of the Berserkers. But what he had to face was an angry Dagur, who stormed into the arena again. Like he did every day. Hiccup stopped the synchronization instantly and twisted his head back into a more normal position. He also blinked rapidly to get his normal human-pupils back. It was faster this way. When his sight got worse he knew it had worked. He was getting pretty good at controlling little things like that and it got easier every day. He was sure it had to do with the synchronization, it just had to. (Some little part of him thought it was just the training, the using of this... this dragon part. The growing familiarity. And it was right.)  
But today was different. Dagur stormed in, yes, but he didn´t shout or threw a tantrum. Hiccup waited for him to arrive at his cage and speak. But when Dagur just stood there and eyed Hiccup up and down again and again, he decided to speak first. “What?” he asked, knowing very well that asking with only one word was rude. Dagur´s lips formed a smug grin, which caused Hiccup to want to puke. “So? Is the training… going good?” Hiccup analyzed every single part of the question, but it didn´t seem to be a trap. He raised his arms to gesture at the cages. “Do you hear anything? They patiently wait for us to finish speaking and are silent most of the time. They behave perfectly.” Dagur nodded and begun to circle the cage. He liked the sound of the rattling chain that was attached to a metal ring around Hiccups neck as he twisted to keep Dagur in his fiel of vision. The memory how he held a burning torch near the black dragons head to ensure that Hiccup wouldn´t move or try anything else while the chain got attached was still fresh.  “And how long do you think can you play this game?” he asked in the same casual tone as he asked the other question. Hiccup turned around  quicklybecause he couldn´t twist any further in this direction. “What game?” Hiccup really didn´t know what he meant. Seriously, he had no idea. “The game of wasting time until your dragon friends come to rescue you of course!” Dagur yelled and Hiccup leaned away. “I don´t do anything like that! Training dragons needs time! A lot of time! I only get started, because if YOU want that THEY listen to you, you have to bound with them, I amonly preparing them for this.” Hiccup defended himself because what he said was god damn true. He had no nerve to lie, also he didn´t want to endanger Toothless. “Why don´t we start now then? I let you out of the cage, get a longer chain to make sure you won´t try anything funny and we let out the first dragon!” he threw his hands into the air. Hiccup suppressed a groan. “Because YOU made it even harder to get them to trust someone, because you scared them! Even you have to see that someone wouldn´t trust anyone who abused them or did whatever before! And if you don´t change your behavior around them they won´t even try!” Hiccup shouted as well, having enough of this jerk. Still, a concerned growl reminded him that he had to remain calm and he instantly breathed deep and closed his eyes to calm down. “I want deadly weapons, not overgrown lizard pets!” Dagur argued, not even looking at Hiccup. He sounded like a spoiled child. Hiccups self-restraint broke at this, because it hit a sore point. “DRAGONS ARE LIVING BEINGS WITH FEELINGS AND NO THINGS YOU! _BIG_! ** _IDIOT_**! WHY DOESN`T **ANY̴O͜NE** ON THIS **_FUCKING_ ** ISLAND GET THAT?! IT`S SO DAMN SIMPLE EVEN THE _TWINS_ UNDERSTOOD!” Hiccup snapped and every human around and in the arena flinched at the booming voice that sounded like a raging dragon with the size of a mountain screaming human words at them with his bloodcurdling voice. Dagur had to cover his ears but it still hurt and they ringed afterwards for a few seconds. Hiccup breathed heavily (and maybe with a bit growling mixed in) while his shouts still echoed over the whole island. Some guards on the other side of the mountains turned around with a puzzled expression and wondered what made this sound. 

Strangely, the dragons didn´t even flinch. They were utterly amazed by their little hatchling-leader to be able to make such an impressive roar without even transforming at all. To say the least, they were as proud of him as if he would have just molted the whole arena with his fire because they smelled the fear of the other humans. It was amusingfor them to see how this terrible red-haired human squirmed and suffered under the voice.

A deadly silence hung over the arena and Dagur waited for the ringing in his ears to stop before he so much as peered to Hiccup who was now perfectly calm as if he didn´t raise his voice at all. “That said, I guess you will understand if I tell you that it will take more time if you want trained dragons.” He said calm and collected and was even smug enough to put on a little, venom-spitting smile. Dagur gulped before he straightened up. “Fine with me. I will… come back in a week.” He was already going when he said that and quickly made his way out of the arena. Later he would lay in his room and wonder how for the love of Thor and Odin the little, scrawny Hiccup could make such a… frightening sound and still speak. It wasn´t like any war-scream he had heard from the most violent tribes (beside his own of course) or the loudest roar he heard from a dragon. Not even a Thunderdrum was _that_ loud and they are famous for blowing off the head of a grown man alone with their voice. Dagur decided to watch Hiccup in the following week. He would see for himself if he told the truth or not. 


	17. The secret of the destiny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow that sounds so mystical - and yeah, it´s basically the gang failing at coming up with a good enough plan.

Another 3 days passed.

They still didn´t come up with a plan, or rather, a Hiccup-plan. Because if they knew one thing, then it was, that if they wanted to rescue Hiccup and Toothless alive, they _needed_ a plan. A plan so wicked, genuine and absolute foolproof only Hiccup could come up with – and that was exactly their problem. Only Hiccup could come up with such a plan, no matter how hard they tried and focused, they couldn´t come up with a plan that would be good enough. They decided to ask Gothi, maybe she knew what to do, or at least the stars.   
Gothi listened  patientlyto their misery and it didn´t take her long to think of an answer. It was like the stars always told her. 

“The one with the touch of destiny can´t escape it no matter how hard he tries. Thus, if the wings aren´t freed by themselves, the body won´t as well.” Gobber translated and the most of them sighed. Of all times, why did she have to speak in riddles _now_? But Gothi wrote more. “That is what the stars say over and over again.” Fishlegs red and after they threw each other a puzzled look, Aster asked the next question. “Do you know what they mean with that?” Gothi looked like she knew it. She wore an even more serious face than else, but then she just shrugged. Loud groans emitted from the group and they begun to build up theories, but of course they didn´t get it. None of them would get it, because they didn´t know of Hiccups secret. Sadly, he didn´t know of his destiny. 


	18. Breaking free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup snaps and beats Dagur up. Funniest thing I ever wrote. And, for now, the most brutal as well.
> 
> Triggerwarning: anything related to beating-up, violence, pain, detached limbs, nightmares, traumatic happenings that CAUSe these nightmares, lost mind, rage, mindless raging and so on. The rest of you: enjoy!^^
> 
> Also, alternative title: Lost minds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes at the end. Don´t wanna spoiler too much.

Even though he synchronized with the dragons every day at least three times, he couldn´t think of a plan. The dragons were curious why he would hand them to the >human-with-the-horrible-manner< after they listened to the loud conversation, but he would assure them that this was but a fluke to buy more time. Hiccup was rather proud of himself that he understood the dragons a little bit better each time, but it was still rather fishy what they wanted to tell him. As far as he could tell for sure, the dragons only wanted to get out of here and would do anything for him, since he was a >hatchling-leader< or something like that. But after that, they would rather leave to return to their homes and of course Hiccup agreed with that.   
On the fourth day, though, Dagur came into the arena with a long chain in tow. Also, five men brought the cage with Toothless in and left after they dropped him. “Well, Hiccup, how about some change? Must be really hard to train a dragon from the distance.” Dagur assumed. Behind him the big gate was closed. And locked.  
Dagur opened his cage, gripped him at his collar and nearly strangled him, while he exchanged the chains. The other end of the chain was manifested on the ground in the middle of the arena. As soon as Dagur left enough space for him, Hiccup was up and run to Toothless, who still struggled to escape. Dagur froze in his spot for a moment, because he was surprised that Hiccup´s feet weren´t bound together anymore, but after the first shock-moment he gripped the chain and jerked it back, causing Hiccup to nearly choke and fly backwards. With a painful landing he crashed into the stone and soon felt the burning sensation of abrasions all over his back. There was angered hissing from the dragons, but Hiccup didn´t really care and struggled to get up, only to be jerked back again. After he fell to the ground the third time, he gave up and turned to Dagur who had a really smug grin on his face. “Lemme go to him!” Hiccup barked and, walking backwards, tugged on the damn collar. Dagur pulled harder and caused Hiccup to stumble forward. “Nah-ahah-aaa! First: you show me how you tame…” he looked around the in the arena and scanned the cages “…THIS dragon!” he pointed at one of the cages. Hiccup swallowed a growl and followed the pointing finger. “That´s a Nadder. At least recognize their names.” Hiccup scoffed and shuffled over to the cage. Next to it was the handle and as he pulled it down he even cracked a little smile. “Hey bud, c´mon, lemme scratch you.” He said after the grid disappeared fully. The dragon was also chained, the shackle wounded his leg, but he still stood up and when he stood Hiccup noticed his failure. “Oh sorry, you´re a girl! How could I miss that?” he apologized and walked over to the still a little shy dragon with lifted arms. The dragons liked, admired Hiccup, but he was still a human of some sort and the dragons had only collected bad memories with humans so far. But her worries were washed away when he laid a gentle hand on her snout and soon she relaxed visibly. He chuckled and patted her big head before he scratched her under the jar in the specific place he called the pudding-point. Every dragon had one, though, he hasn´t found it yet at every one. But he was sure everyone had one. Like all chicken laid eggs and all female yaks gave milk. Of course the dragon… well, went all pudding and slumped to the ground were it happily purred. “See? Easy, but you have to earn it´s trust fi-”, he was interrupted as Dagur pulled him back violently and he again landed on the ground. “ _How_ did you free your hands?” Dagur hissed. Hiccup was confused for a moment, but then noticed that he was indeed not tied anymore. Come to think of it, when did he untie his feet? “Uhh… dunno?” he asked as he sat up. His back was turned to Dagur and as he sat up Dagur had a good look at it. His face twisted in pure horror as he watched how the abrasions slowly disappeared until only blank skin was left. And what was with those strange markings? He never noticed them in the shadow of the cage. “Hey! What´s up with your back? What game are you playing?!” Dagur screamed. Hiccup looked up from his hands and threw Dagur a confused look. The Nadder got up and trotted over to Hiccup to nudge his head with his snout. Hiccup patted the dragon absentmindedly and looked back at his other hand. The rope around it was ripped and hang loose around his wrist. Then it clicked and a sly grin formed on his lips. Strength of a dragon huh? He could use that. Starting with that damned chain. He slowly stood up and patted the Nadder again before he laxly walked over to Toothless who tried to struggle himself out of the ropes and belts, but whined when his wing hurt again because of it. Hiccup heard Dagur gasp and prepared himself for the tug that came. It came, yes, but he didn´t fall back. In one swift movement he gripped the chain firmly and tore it apart. A little laughter escaped his mouth as he inspected the destroyed chain in his hands, before he let it fall and sprinted over to his dragon. He was euphoric that it was so easy to break a chain, though, a bit frightened as well that it was so easy to do such a super-human thing, but he decided to deal with it later: now he would use it to its fullest. When he arrived at the cage he gripped the bars and pulled. Pulled hard and eventually bend them wide enough that he could slip into the cage. The ropes around Toothless were nearly too easy to rip apart, the belts as well were no deal and as soon as Toothless could open his mouth he shot a bright plasma blast forward to blow up the already damaged bars. Hiccup cheered – he was as good as free, he only had to free the other dragons and fly away. But then Toothless whined again and his enthusiasm wailed – how could he forget? Toothless couldn´t fly with a broken wing!

…

But the other dragons could carry them together! He sprinted to the nearest cage and opened it, before he slipped in and ripped the chain out of the stone. As fast as the freshly freed Monstrous Nightmare could he ran out of his cage and set himself on fire, before he spit fire at the bars of the other cages with Nightmares. With an actual chance of freedom the other dragons melted their bars as well. Hiccup was about to slip into the next cage, but he was tackled away by Dagur who had drawn his sword already. He held it high and was about to behead the startled boy beneath him, when the freed Nightmare grabbed him like Hookfang always grabbed Snotlout with its big mouth and thus freed Hiccup. Said sprung back to his feet and had enough time to free the other two Nightmares and one of the Scauldrons before he heard Dagur scream again. He turned and was right in time to see how the dragons got in Dagur´s way to shield Hiccup. “Keep him occupied, I will deal with the rest!” he shouted while already sprinting to the next cage. He freed dragon after dragon, even as countless guards stormed into the arena and tried to stop him. Adrenalin washed through his veins and he felt his heart beat fast and hard. Soon, hell broke out in the arena. The dragons spit fire and tried to bite the guards, Berserkers screamed and shouted, their voices mixing with the roars, there were swords swung and several other types of weapons but the dragons, even though they were exhausted, stood their ground and only got a few cuts and scratches, but none was seriously hurt. Hiccup was about to free the last dragon when it happened. The whispering death´s digged too many tunnels below the arena and after a deafening loud rumble the ground shook before it collapsed. Terrified screams escaped from humans as well as from dragons, but the beasts were lucky they could fly and thus escaped a terrible fate. The Gronckle Hiccup was about to free panicked and as soon as Hiccup broke his chain he flew out of his crumbling cage, but in his panic he shoved Hiccup down the new and most of all deep hole. It didn´t take long for him to land hard on a rather big platform that still shook. He had barely enough time to regain his sight and see a big rock fall down before he rolled away and the rock crashed into the place he laid only a second ago. “Toothless!” he shouted upwards and soon his dragon spotted him before the black scaly being hopped down to help his human. More rocks, littler ones, crashed down and he had to dodge them. The other dragons were to busy with melting the ceiling of the arena that kept them in there to hear him. Damn, this was all going too fast. A furious roar distracted Hiccup and a split second later he avoided a sword that now slammed into the ground directly next to his head. He quickly got up to his feet and faced a raging Dagur whose only and even if last goal was to kill Hiccup. He avoided several other hits and swings, on the edge noticing his dragon that had trouble to get to him because of the still crashing down rocks. He couldn´t make even one failure.   
Toothless shot a worried look over to his human, avoided another rock and finally found an at least _halfway_ stable platform to stand on. There was enough time for one shot and he did it before he had to avoid another rock. Sadly, he had to discover that he missed his goal and shot only the sword instead of the head of the other human. Gladly, it flew away and disappeared in the deep hole. Dagur growled even more angered, stormed over to Hiccup and finally tackled him down, but was shoved back by surprisingly strong arms. Exactly at this moment Toothless hopped onto their platform and Dagur landed next to him. Before Toothless or Hiccup could do anything or even react, Dagur was back on his feet and slammed a dagger into the right hind leg of Toothless. _That was when something in Hiccup snapped._

  
He turned around with a smug grin but before he could even see the shattered hope in Hiccups face he was tackled painfully hard to the ground by a force at least as strong as one of the rocks from a catapult. When he regained his sight and looked up, while feeling a painfully firm grip crash his shoulders he met the cold and at the same time with rage burning gaze of two glowing eyes with slit pupils. “How _dare_ you.” He hissed and Dagur nearly couldn´t understand him but decided to not show his blood freezing fear of Hiccup in this moment. Instead, he grinned smugly and tried to push Hiccup off of him – he could as well try to push a mountain. “You´re stronger than you look.” He admitted and the grip around his shoulder strengthened, only to break the armor on his right one. “I´m not quite what I look like.” Dagur felt long and sharp claws dig into the flesh of his shoulder. The next thing he knew, was, that blood was splattered all around him and on his face. It was burning hot, as if it would boil. Out of Hiccups back there… there were wings! Dragon wings, big, dark and covered in blood. His skin was littered with scales from one to another second and the stare of those frightening green and glowing eyes that were definitely no longer human was like poison that burned his own eyes. The green had pushed the white away enough to make it disappear. Dagur felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder before he even realized that he was thrown around. He landed painfully hard in a wall and could swear he heard several cracks in and behind him, before he was about to slump to the ground. But he was caught midair by a claw around his throat and slammed into the ground again. The second he lasted there was enough for him to realize that the pain in his shoulder was caused by the _missing_ of said shoulder, together with its arm. “ _That’s_ for the wing.” He heard a furious hiss and then several punches hit his right leg. He could swear every single bone in it was broken several times, before the punching but surely not the pain stopped. “ ** _That_** ´ ** _s_** for the leg.” The voice hissed again and he couldn´t even say from where it came as he was lifted by the claw around his throat again. He wished it would just break his neck and end the pain, but instead he was thrown high into the air, high enough to be on the same high as the arena was, before a strong force hit him midair into his side. It was sure to break every rip on this side and some of the others as well and throw him into one of the opened cages. Another force hit him, now in the other leg and its bones were broken into pieces as well. “And **_THAT´S_** for everything **else** _._ ” The hissing voice said filled with venom. Then, a deafening roar was heard from the same voice. “You better **_n͞é̴v̧e̡r҉͢_ ́͡** come back." was the last thing he heard before he passed out. At this point he didn´t know that these last words would still haunt him in his nightmares even many years later.

The last thing Hiccup actually noticed was the pained whine of Toothless as Dagur stabbed his leg and the pain his transformation caused. Everything after that went red and black and the only thing he knew was hot rage. But after said was satisfied the only thing that was in his head was to bring Toothless and himself home. His mind was still blank and he wasn´t controlling whatever his body did, but he felt the horrible pain it caused and after some time that felt like an eternity he drowned in it and passed out. He had already gave in to it and only passed out after he felt a strangely foreign sense of _home_ and _safe_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, please don´t complain in the lines of: Hiccup would never do something as brutal as that. Because: this is not Hiccup. This is not Hiccup that´s acting at the last part. That´s something else and if you read the second story you will get a proper explanation. I know Hiccup is kinda a peace-loving guy-type thing, that guy can barely hurt a fly. (At least in this AU, goddamn it.) But there is something else causing him to act like this and yeah. Hope you still enjoyed it though.


	19. Returning Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: pain, gore, ripped body? 
> 
> Hiccup comes home and yeah - things aren´t going so... uh... not so great. Yeah, let´s go with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, almost at the end guys. Prepare for it. (I´m not ready for this damn it.)

Stoic sat in his chair at his table in his house. He was practically grounded but the longer he stared at Hiccups empty chair the harder it got.   
Eventually, he had enough of it and decided that he would set to Berserker Island, even if he had to go alone and use a nutshell. But in the exact moment that he stood up roughly his door was blasted open by Astrid who shouted something about a strange dragon coming to Berk and their own dragons being in panic. He ran out of his house and followed her to the plaza of their village. She was right, the dragons seemed to be heavily uneasy as they stared up to the sky, the other teenagers and some villagers stared into that direction as well. They saw a big and most of all strange formed dragon come to their island. He… he had four wings! But his flight seemed to be troubled as they noticed the nearer he came, because he slumped down a bit every now and then. “It´s Toothless! He has Toothless!” Fishlegs shouted and soon the others as well recognized the black mass with the red fin. Toothless was carried by a slightly bigger dragon who was the owner of the four wings. As it was near enough to make out an actual shape, they saw several arrows stick out of his body, before it crashed down between them. They were fast enough to make some space to avoid being crushed, but the dragon had too much speed and thus they couldn´t really see anything. Dust was whirled up and built a little cloud. As it thinned out and the sightcleared, the first thing the Vikings saw was a frightening amount of blood that was smeared and splattered on the ground. Then a deafening loud, horrible pained and bloodcurdling scream-roar-whine-mix pierced their ears. They quickly covered their ears, not few cringed and it didn´t take long for the rest of the dust to disappear. Toothless was standing above the other dragon and shielded it form the sights of the others with his wings, head and tail. He also growled threateningly while glaring at the Vikings. New sounds mixed into the roaring and it sounded like a human screaming at the top of its lungs. The sound of breaking bones and tearing flesh came next as the humanoid screaming doubled and nearly decked the dragon roars. The villagers were confused but Astrid and Fishlegs nodded at each other before they stepped forward with raised hands. They had to calm Toothless down so that they could help whatever dragon was below him. Toothless  didn´t even recognize them at first and shot a plasma blast in fornt of their feet before growling and roaring menacingly at them. “Toothless! It´s us, Astrid and Fishlegs!” Fishlegs tried and Toothless stopped growling. Quickly his expression changed into a heavily concerned one and as his pupils widened his wings slumped down. Fishlegs noticed the strange angle one made and soon understood that it must be broken. “Hey, come on Toothless, we will help whoever is below you.” Astrid assured him and Toothless whined. The roaring beneath him weakened but the pained screaming took its place instead. The voice didn´t even crack and there flowed blood from beneath his legs. Toothless stared at it in shock and fright and hesitated for a short moment before he stepped aside. He limped strangely. The villagers gasped horrified as they saw the revealed being. Hiccup laid there, half of his skin was covered in dark scales and his hands as well as one foot had claws like a dragon. Three of the four former big wings were shrunk and the fourth halfway, but none of them looked that… healthy. Every inch of him seemed to be covered in blood and countless arrows stuck out of random places of his body, some were broken. There was a bright glowing in his chest that slowly faded, but only after he spit out some flames. His mouth with frightening sharp teeth was ripped wide open, as well as his eyes and even though they couldn´t see pupils they saw the tears and blood that flowed from them. He squirmed and wrenched in the pain and for a few moments they all could only stare. It... it all moved. The wings and the scales, they were in constant change. When his squirming caused him to roll to his stomach, some villagers had to look away because even they couldn´t stand the condition of his back. There stuck bones out of the wings and the skin was ripped, bloody and grey. Also the wings were only half back into his back and thus deformed it sickeningly strange. There even stuck out two ribs between the crippled wings. He stretched one hand out as if reaching for help, while the other dug its nails deep into the earth. The claws transformed back into human nails and new blood dwelled out from under them when the harsh treatening broke the skin. Stoic was the first to escape his rigidity and search out Gothi. He only had to turn, though, because she was already coming. She seemed to be the only calm one and while the others could still only stare horrified she stepped forward until she stood in front of Hiccup and lifted the hand that didn´t hold her staff. She held a little violet and most of all strange root in it, before she bent down and dropped into the mouth of Hiccup. The screaming stopped seconds later and he went limp. As his head slammed into the ground together with the rest of his body even more blood splattered around him. She didn´t even flinch.

Gothi was the only one who still remained calm as they all watched how, with awful sounds of snapping bones and wrenching flesh, the wings slowly grew back into his back and only left bright red marks and all the blood and ruined skin. She winked Stoic to her side and commanded him to carry Hiccup. He did as he was told and the last thing the others saw was how the three of them disappeared into the house of the chief.   
Fishlegs (and some of the dragons) helped Gobber to drag Toothless away to take care of his wounds as he tried to follow his human.   
He grumpily let them splint his wing and bandage his other wounds.

Gothi didn’t come out of the house until evening. The teens and some other concerned villagers stormed to her and she assured them that it would be okay, but he would have to rest a long time. The amount of blood on her was less than discouraging. 


	20. Last Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically his recovering and the situation some time after all of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END! THE END IS COMING!  
> AND HRE IT IS!  
> Gods, finally I´m through with this. Now I gotta write on the second part (someone asked me to write and it wasn´t planned at all and look where I am now, already writing it and planning a third part. Ugh. But I really like this AU, I can´t get enough of it.)

One week passed.

Every day the teens would come to ask Stoic about Hiccup´s condition, only to leave disappointed. He wasn´t awake. Not once. Stoic sat at his bed when he wasn´t sleeping. He had to force feed Hiccup to save him from starving.

A second week passed.

Stoic sat by his bed most of the time, he was still a chief, but Toothless laid next to it all the time. At least that made Stoic keep his calm when he was out of the house (though he never left it for long). Nearly no one had enough spirit left to visit or ask.

A third week went over halfway.

Stoic was about to leave the room when he heard a groggily moan behind him and shifting fabric. He froze for a second before he spun around. Hiccup grimaced slightly and turned his head around, before he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing that met his face was a wet and warm tongue that covered it with slimy saliva. “Heccup!” Stoic shouted heavily relieved and happy. “Dad?” Hiccup croaked out dryly. Then he lifted his hands and pat Toothless so he would stop slyming his face. His arms were heavy, so very heavy. And they burned from the movement. “Bud, bud, it´s okay, stop.” He weakly chuckled but coughed because his throat was so damn dry.

What even happened? His whole body hurt and he felt several bandages, also, he was in his bed and his _crying_ dad _cuddled_ him _carefully_. Oh shoot – he must be dead! He _knew_ it!

Damn.

“You´re awake, you´re finally awake.” His father croaked out before he let go of him - his hands were still on his shoulders though. Hiccup sat up with a bit of trouble, but the pain was not that hard to bear. “I´m not dead?” was the first thing he actually asked and later he would feel slightly stupid because of it. “No, son, you slept over two weeks, but you´re not dead.” His dad chuckled just so relieved.

It took several hours to explain everything to Hiccup, remove his bandages (and find his wounds all perfectly healed because of his new unnatural quick healing-ability) and for Hiccup to re-learn how to walk, because his legs were pudding from lying so long. But before the sun set he was ready to go outside. His father was slightly concerned, but Hiccup really seemed to be fine, also, he would be at his side if something happened. Toothless´ foot was healed by the time, but his wing would at least need another two weeks. But that didn´t hinder him to burst out and waggle and jump around happily. The teens, which wereactually about to check on Hiccup, were really surprised to see Toothless outdoors but soon cheered when they saw Hiccup step out of the house like it would be just another normal day. They run up to him and were happy enough to catch him in a big group hug before Toothless crashed said and nuzzled his human happily. They laughed and said how happy they were that Hiccup was okay. He was about to thank them but the sunlight hit him from a wrong angle and caused him to sneeze. He accidently set Tuffnut´s butt on fire. “Oh gods, sorry.” He quickly apologized and raised his hands, but didn´t know where to put them so he shielded his mouth halfway. Tuffnut stared puzzled at him while the others had to stifle their laughter. “What do you mean? And what are you making by the way? It smells delicious. Are they grilling meat somewhere?” he looked around searching for the fire. “No, Tuffnut, uhm, you´re on fire.” Hiccup bit his bottom lip. He would have to work on that. “I know I´m hot, but-”, “No, I mean _literally_.” Hiccup interrupted and only then Tuffnut noticed the fire on his butt. He shouted and jumped into a trunk  of water seconds later where he slumped down sighting. The others couldn´t help it anymore and burst out laughed loudly while Hiccup was filled with embarrassment. He would _definitely_ have to work on that.

 

 

Weeks later

 

“I still think it´s strange.” Snotlout said with his full mouth. “I like it, it´s like… a song.” Astrid replied while slightly swaying to the rhythm. The air vibrated by the sound in a strangely comforting way and it was like… hugging their ears. The humming, purring and other sounds that emitted from the ring of dragons and the boy with the reddish brown hair and green, currently closed eyes. He rocked back and forth while a soft sound poured out of his throat in unison with the dragons around him. He loved it to synchronize with them and agreed with the others to do it at lunch. He had his transformation under control now. Every now and then, the others could see him flying around the island and instantly recognized those four wings. He had built an improved fin for Toothless so that he could fly without Hiccup – thus they could fly next to each other if they wanted, but Toothless would prefer to fly with his human on his back often.  
The mocking because of his new outfit that was a "shirt" that hold onto his neck and left his back naked (so he wouldn´t have to remove or rip it when he transformed) was countered with tiny spits of flames. At first the kids were frightened by the “new Hiccup” because he was now taller, ridicules strong (seriously, he had to look out at first to not brake things like chairs, tables or swords with his bare hands accidently) and slit-pupil-ed. But the little fear they had was soon forgotten when he kneeled down with a knowing smile and then spit fire into the air. At first, of course, they were scared, but then quickly amazed by it. It was multicolored with tones of red, orange, yellow and a bit blue and sparks flew around softly like autumn leaves. Without setting things on fire of course.

He had told them all he knew that happened on Berserker Island and later he would also translate what Toothless saw of the fight between him and Dagur. Or rather, how he beaded Dagur to a bloody pulp after he transformed, because there was a lack of memory from his side. He could fully understand the dragons when transformed, though, it was still hard to speak human words when his voice wanted to do otherwise. He also told them that he was sure they wouldn´t have to expect anything near an attack from the Berserkers in the near future. Or ever again.

“I like it too.” Fishlegs agreed and watched the dragons´ behavior amazed. Even though he saw it every day now, it was still… well… just amazing.  
When the humming died down and Hiccup let his scales disappear (they came out when he synchronized with or just relaxed around dragons) before he got up, scratched a scaly head here and there and walked over to the others.

 

Watching from the high point, Gothi smiled as she absentmindedly petted one of her Terrible Terrors. Her eyes laid on the young boy, gifted with a hint of destiny within him and she was glad as the stars were that he fulfilled it to its fullest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. Prepare for the next part. Originally the story ends here, but someone asked for a continuation, so I´m writing one...  
> And planning a thrid part O_O damn my brain. Hope to see at least some of you back when it comes to uploading it^^
> 
> Edit: I made a visualisation of his wings and the marks on his back, if anyone wants to see it:  
> http://marijane-akuma.tumblr.com/post/125806005871/i-actually-forgot-i-made-this-so-yeah-partly


End file.
